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THE PATRIOT 



PATRIOTISM 



IN 



WASHINGTON'S TIME 



COLLECTED AND COMPILED 

P/ J. BYRNE, M. D. 



The motives that prompted our Forefathers to declare the "RIGHT 

TO BE A FREE AND INDEPENDENT PEOPLE," 

and which led to the "Declaration of 

Independence." 



JOHN MURPHY COMPANY 

PRINTERS 

BALTIMORES MARYHjAND 

1917 






Copyright 1917, by 
P. J. BYRNE. M. D. 



FEB -7 1918 

©CI.A481i>46 



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To the brave Boys at the Front, wherever 
they may be, and to those who stay at Home 
and ''DO THEIR LITTLE BIT," this volume 
is dedicated. 

By the Compiler. 



CONTENTS 



Chap. I. THE ALBANY PLAN OF UNION FOR THE COLO- 
NIES 7 

II. THE STAMP ACT AND ITS REPEAL 17 

III. THE BOSTON TEA PARTY 29 

IV. GOVERNOR HUTCHINSON'S ACCOUNT 35 

V. PATRICK HENRY'S CALL TO ARMS 38 

VI. WASHINGTON'S APPOINTMENT AS COMMAN- 
DER-IN-CHIEF 45 

VII. THE DRAFTING OF THE DECLARATION OF IN- 
DEPENDENCE 55 

VIII. JOHN ADAMS' ACCOUNT 62 

IX. DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE , 65 

X. THE YOUTH OF WASHINGTON 72 

XL FRANKLIN IN FRANCE 74 

XII. TREASON 81 

XIII. ADVENTURES OF MR. JOHN ANDERSON 95 

XIV. HIS EXCELLENCY IS EXPECTED TO BRE.IK- 

FAST 105 

XV. A SOLDIER'S DEATH Ill 

XVI. MAJOR JOHN ANDRE WAS EXECUTED AS A 

SPY AT TAPPAN, NEW YORK, Oct. 2, 1780 ... 116 

XVII. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES . 120 

WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS 145 

SUMMARY AND CHRONOLOGICAL INDEX 169 



Chap. I. THE ALBANY "PLAN OF UNION" 
FOR THE COLONIES. 

(1754) 

By Benjamin Franklin (See Note). 

It is proposed that humble application be made 
for an Act of Parliament of Great Britain by virtue 
of which one general government may be formed in 
America, including all the said colonies, within and 
under which government each colony may retain its 
present constitution, except in the particulars where- 
in a change may be directed by the said Act, as here- 
after follows. 

President-General and Grand Council. 

"That the said general government be administered by a 
President-General, to be appointed and supported by the 
crown ; and a Grand Council, to be chosen by the representa- 
tives of the people of the several colonies met in their respec- 
tive assemblies." 

It was thought that it would be best the President- 
General should be supported as well as appointed by 



Note — The "Plan" here printed was drawn up by Franklin at 
the request of a committee which had been entrusted with the task. 
Franklin based it on an outline which he had drawn up some time 
before. The Albany Congress, to which the plan was submitted in 
1754, comprised 25 delegates, representing eight of the colonies — 
New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New 
York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia. Some sort of union 
had long been desired by the Colonies, and, although this attempt 
ended in failure, it has historic importance as the most notable 
attempt at federation made by the Colonies before the Revolution. 
Franklin ascribed its failure to the fact that the Congress itself 
"thought there was too much prerogative, and England, too much 
of the democratic." The Congress became useful, however, in famil- 
iarizing the people with the idea of union — a familiarity which 
facilitated in later years the movement for union of action against 
England. 



8 Patriotism in Washington's Time, 

the crown, that so all disputes between him and the 
Grand Council concerning his salary might be pre- 
vented, as such disputes have been frequently of mis- 
chievous consequence in particular colonies, espe- 
cially in time of public danger. 

The quitrents of crown lands in America might in 
a short time be sufficient for this purpose. The 
choice of members for the Grand Council is placed 
in the House of Representatives of each government, 
in order to give the people a share in this new gen- 
eral government, as the crown has its share by the 
appointment of the President-General. 

But it being proposed by the gentlemen of the 
Council of New York, and some other counsellors 
among the commissioners, to alter the plan in this 
particular and to give the governors and councils of 
the several Provinces a share in the choice of the 
Grand Council, or of disallowing the choice made 
by the House of Representatives, it was said: 

That the government or constitution proposed to 
be formed by the plan consists of two branches — a 
President-General, appointed by the crown, and a 
council, chosen by the people or by the people's rep- 
resentatives, which is the same thing. 

That by a subsequent article the council chosen by 
the people can effect nothing without the consent of 
the President-General, appointed by the crown ; the 
crown possesses, therefore, full one-half of the power 
of this constitution. 

That in the British Constitution the crown is sup- 
posed to possess but one-third, the Lords having 
their share. 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 9 

That this Constitution seemed rather more favor- 
able for the crown. 

That it is essential to English liberty that the 
subject should not be taxed but by his own consent 
or the consent of his elected representatives. 

That taxes to be laid and levied by this proposed 
Constitution will be proposed and agreed to by the 
representatives of the people if the plan in this par- 
ticular be preserved. 

But if the proposed alteration should take place, 
it seemed as if matters may be so managed as that 
the crown shall finally have the appointment, not 
only of the President-General, but of a majority of 
the Grand Council, for seven out of eleven governors 
and councils are appointed by the crown. 

And so the people in all the colonies would, in 
effect, be taxed by their governors. 

It was, therefore, apprehended that such altera- 
tions of the plan would give great dissatisfaction, 
and that the colonies could not be easy under such a 
power in governors and such an infringement of 
what they take to be English liberty. 

Besides, the giving a share in the choice of the 
Grand Council would not be equal with respect to 
all the colonies, as their constitutions differ. In 
some, both governor and council are appointed by 
the crown ; in others they are both appointed by the 
proprietors. In some the people have a share in the 
choice of the council ; in others both government and 
council are wholly chosen by the people. 

But the House of Representatives is everywhere 
chosen by the people; and, therefore, placing the 



10 Patriotism in Washington's Time}. 

right of choosing the Grand Council in the represen- 
tatives is equal with respect to all. 

That the Grand Council is intended to represent 
all the several Houses of Representatives of the col- 
onies, as a House of Representatives doth the sev- 
eral towns or counties of a colony. Could all the 
people of a colony be consulted and unite in public 
measures, a House of Representatives would be need- 
less, and, could all the Assemblies conveniently con- 
sult and unite in general measures, the Grand Coun- 
cil would be unnecessary. 

That a House of Commons or the House of Repre- 
sentatives, and the Grand Council, are thus alike in 
their nature and intention. And, as it would seem 
improper that the King or House of Lords should 
have a power of disallowing or appointing members 
of the House of Commons, so likewise that a Gov- 
ernor and Council appointed by the Crown should 
have a power of disallowing or appointing members 
of the Grand Council, who, in this Constitution, are 
to be the representatives of the people. 

If the governors and councils, therefore, were to 
have a share in the choice of any that are to conduct 
this general government, it should seem more proper 
that they choose the President-General. But this 
being an office of trust and importance to the na- 
tion, it was thought better to be filled by the imme- 
diate appointment of the crown. 

Election of Members. 

"Within — months after the passing of such Act the House 
of Representatives that happen to be sitting within that time, 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 11 

or that shall be especially for that purpose convened, may 
and shall choose members for the Grand Council in the fol- 
lowing proportion: that is to say, Massachusetts Bay, 7; 
New Hampshire, 2 ; Connecticut, 5 ; Rhode Island, 2 ; New 
York, 4 ; New Jersey, 3 ; Pennsylvania, 6 ; Maryland, 4 ; Vir- 
ginia, 7; North Carolina, 4; South Carolina, 4. Total, 48." 

It was thought that if the least colony was 
allowed two, and the other in proportion, the num- 
ber would be very great and the expense heavy ; and 
that less than two would not be convenient, as a 
single person being by accident prevented from ap- 
pearing at the meeting, the colony he ought to ap- 
pear for would not be represented. That as the 
choice was not immediately popular, they would be 
generally men of good abilities for business and men 
of reputation for integrity ; and that forty-eight such 
men might be a number sufficient. But, though it 
was thought reasonable each colony should have a 
share in the representative body in some degree, ac- 
cording to the proportion it contributed to the gen- 
eral treasury, yet the proportion of wealth or power 
of the colonies is not to be judged by the proportion 
here fixed; because it was at first agreed that the 
greatest colony should not have more than seven 
members, nor the least less than two; and the set- 
ting these proportions between these two extremes 
was not nicely attended to, as it would find itself, 
after the first election, from the sums brought into 
the treasury, as by a subsequent article. 

Place op First Meeting. 

"The Grand Council shall meet for the first time at the 
City of Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania, being called by the 



12 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

President-General as soon as conveniently may be after his 
appointment." 

Philadelphia was named as being nearer the cen- 
ter of the colonies, where the commissioners would 
be well and cheaply accommodated. The highroads 
through the whole extent are, for the most part, very 
good, in which forty or fifty miles a day may very 
well be, and frequently are, traveled. Great part of 
the way may likewise be gone by water. In sum- 
mer time the passages are frequently performed in a 
week from Charleston to Philadelphia and New 
York; and from Rhode Island to New York through 
the Sound in two or three days; and from New 
York to Philadelphia by water and land in two days, 
by stage, boats and wheel-carriages that set out 
every other day. The journey from Charleston to 
Philadelphia may likewise be facilitated by boats 
running up Chesapeake Bay three hundred miles. 
But if the whole journey be performed on horse- 
back the most distant members, viz., the two from 
New Hampshire and from South Carolina, may prob- 
ably render themselves at Philadelphia in fifteen or 
twenty days; the majority may be there in much 
less time. * * ♦ 

Meetings of the Grand Council and Call. 

"The Grand Council shall meet once in every year, and 
oftener if occasion require, at such time and place as they 
shall adjourn to at the last preceding meeting, or as they 
shall be called to meet at by the President-General on any 
emergency ; he having first obtained in writing the consent 
of seven of the members to such call, and sent due and timely 
notice to the whole." 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 13 

It was thought, in establishing and governing new 
colonies or settlements, regulating Indian trade, In- 
dian treaties, etc., there would every year sufiBcient 
business arise to require at least one meeting, and at 
such meeting many things might be suggested for 
the benefit of all the colonies. This annual meeting 
may either be at a time or place certain, to be fixed 
by the President-General and Grand Council at their 
first meeting; or left at liberty, to be at such time 
and place as they shall adjourn to, or be called to 
meet at by the President-General. In time of war 
it seems convenient that the meeting should be in 
that colony which is nearest the seat of action. The 
power of calling them on any emergency seemed 
necessary to be vested in the President-General ; but, 
that such power might not be wantonly used to 
harass the members and oblige them to make fre- 
quent long journeys to little purpose, the consent 
of seven at least to such call was supposed a con- 
venient guard. * * * 

Members' Allowance. 

"The members of the Grand Couucil shall be allowed for 
their service ten shillings sterling per diem, during their ses- 
sion and journey to and from the place of meeting ; twenty 
miles to be reckoned a day's journey." 

It was thought proper to allow some wages, lest 
the expense might deter some suitable persons from 
the service; and not allow too great wages, lest un- 
suitable persons should be tempted to cabal for the 
employment, for the sake of gain. Twenty miles 
were set down as a day's journey, to allow for acci- 



14 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

dental liiiidrances on the road, and the greater ex- 
penses of traveling than residing at the place of 
meeting. 

Assent of the President-General. 

"The assent of the President-General shall be requisite to 
all acts of the Grand Council, and it shall be his office and 
duty to cause them to be carried into execution." 

The assent of the President-General to all acts 
of the GraTid Council was made necessary, in order 
to give the crown its due share of influence in this 
government, and conect it with that of Great Brit- 
ain. The President-General, besides one-half of the 
legislative power, hath in his hands the whole execu- 
tive power. 

Raise Soldiers and Equip Vessels. 

"They shall raise and pay soldiers and build forts for the 
defense of any of the colonies, and equip vessels of force to 
guard the coasts and protect the trade on the ocean, lakes 
or great rivers ; but they shall not impress men in any colony, 
without the consent of the Legislature." 

It was thought that quotas of men, to be raised 
and paid by the several colonies, and joined for any 
public service, could not always be got together with 
the necessary expedition. For instance, suppose one 
thousand men should be wanted in New Plampshire 
on any emergency. To fetch them by fifties and 
hundreds out of eveiy colony, as far as South Caro- 
lina, would be inconvenient, the transportation 
chargeable, and the occasion, perhaps, passed before 
they could be assembled ; and, therefore, it would be 
best to raise them (by offering bounty money and 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 15 

pay) near the place where they would be wanted, to 
be discharged again when the service should be over. 

Particular colonies are at present backward to 
build forts at their own expense, which they say 
will be equally useful to their neighboring colonies, 
who refuse to join on a presumption that such forts 
will be built and kept up, though they contribute 
nothing. This unjust conduct weakens the whole; 
but forts being for the good of the whole, it was 
thought best they should be built and maintained by 
the whole, out of the common treasury. 

In the time of war small vessels of force are some- 
times necessary in the colonies to scour the coasts 
of small privateers. These being provided by the 
Union will be an advantage in turn to the colonies 
which are situated on the sea, and whose frontiers 
on the land side, being covered by other colonies, 
reap but little immediate benefit from the advanced 
forts. 

Power to Make Laws^ Lay Duties^ Etc. 

"For these purposes they shall have power to make laws, 
lay and levy such general duties, Imposts or taxes, as to 
them shall appear most equal and just (considering the 
ability and other circumstances of the inhabitants in the 
several colonies), and such as may be collected with the 
least inconvenience to the people ; rather discouraging luxury 
than loading industry with unnecessary burdens." 

The laws which the President-General and Grand 
Council are empowered to make are such only as 
shall be necessary for the government of the settle- 
ments, the raising, regulating and paying soldiers 
for the general service; the regulating of Indian 



16 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

trade, and laying and collecting the general dutii 
and taxes. Thej should also have a power to r 
strain the exportation of provisions to the enen: 
from any of the colonies on particular occasions i 
time of war. But it is not intended that they ma 
interfere with the constitution and government of tl 
particular colonies, who are to be left to their ow 
laws, and to lay, levy and apply their own taxes, j 
before. 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 17 



Chap.II. THE STAMP ACT AND ITS REPEAL. 

(1765) 

The Stamp Act, when its ultimate consequences 
are considered, must be deemed one of the most mo- 
mentous legislative acts in the history of mankind; 
but in England it passed almost completely unno- 
ticed. The Wilkes excitement absorbed public at- 
tention, and no English politician appears to have 
realized the importance of the measure. It is scarce- 
ly mentioned in the contemporary correspondence of 
Horace Walpole, of Grenville, or of Pitt. Burke, 
who was not yet a member of the House of Commons, 
afterward declared that he had followed the debate 
from the gallery, and that he had never heard a 
more languid one in the House; that not more than 
two or three gentlemen spoke against the bill; that 
there was but one division in the whole course of the 
discussion, and that the minority in that division 
was not more than thirty-nine or forty. In the 
House of Lords he could not remember that there 
had been either a debate or division, and he was 
certain that there was no protest. 

In truth, the measure, although it was by no means 
as unjust or unreasonable as has been alleged, and 
although it might perhaps in some periods of colo- 
nial history have passed almost unperceived, did 
unquestionably infringe upon a principle which the 
English race both at home and abroad have always 
regarded with a peculiar jealousy. The doctrine 



18 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

that taxation and representation are in free na- 
tions inseparably connected, that constitutional gov- 
ernment is closely connected with the rights of prop- 
erty, and that no jieople can be legitimately taxed 
except by themselves or their representatives, lay at 
the very root of the English conception of political 
liberty. The same principle that had led the Eng- 
lish people to provide so carefully in the Great 
Charter, in a well-known statute of Edward I, and 
in the Bill of Eights, that no taxation should be 
drawn from them except by the English Parlia- 
ment; the same principle which had gradually in- 
vested the representative branch of the Legislature 
with the special and peculiar function of granting 
supplies, led the colonists to maintain that their 
liberty would be destroyed if they were taxed by a 
Legislature in which they had no representatives, 
and which sat three thousand miles from their 
shore. 

It was a principle which had been respected by 
Henry VIII and Elizabeth in the most arbitrary 
moments of their reigns, and its violation by Charles 
I was one of the chief causes of the rebellion. The 
principle which led Hampden to refuse to pay 20 
shillings of ship money was substantially the same 
as that which inspired the resistance to the Stamp 
Act. 

It is quite true that this theory, like that of the 
social contract, which has also borne a great part in 
the history of political liberty, will not bear a severe 
and philosophical examination. The opponents of 
the American claims were able to reply, with un- 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 19 

doubted truth, that at least nine-tenths of the Eng- 
lish people had no votes; that the great manufac- 
turing towns, which contributed so largely to the 
public burdens, were for the most part wholly un- 
represented; that the minority in Parliament voted 
only in order to be systematically overruled; and 
that in a country where the constituencies were as 
unequal as in England, that minority often repre- 
sented the large majority of the voters. * * ♦ 

It was a first principle of the Constitution that a 
member of Parliament was the representative not 
merely of his own constituency, but also of the whole 
Empire. Men connected with, or at least specially 
interested in the colonies, always found their way 
into Parliament; and the very fact that the colonial 
arguments were maintained with transcendent 
power within its walls was sufficient to show that 
the colonies were virtually represented. 

A Parliament elected by a considerable part of 
the English people, drawn from the English people, 
sitting in them, of them, and exposed to their social 
and intellectual influence, was assumed to represent 
the whole nation, and the decision of its majority 
was assumed to be the decision of the whole. If it 
be asked how these assumptions could be defended, 
it can only be answered that they had rendered pos- 
sible a form of government which had arrested the 
incursions of the royal prerogative, had given Eng- 
land a longer period and a larger measure of self- 
government than was enjoyed by any other great 
European nation, and had created a public spirit 
sufficiently powerful to defend the liberties that had 
been won. 



20 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

Such arguments, however worthless they might 
appear to a lawyer or a theorist, ought to be very 
suflScient to a statesman. Manchester and Sheffield 
had no more direct representation in Parliament 
than Boston or Philadelphia; but the relations of 
unrepresented Englishmen and of colonists to the 
English Parliament were very different. 

Parliament could not long neglect the fierce beat- 
ings of the waves of popular discontent around its 
walls. It might long continue perfectly indifferent 
to the wishes of a population 3,000 miles from the 
English shore. When Parliament taxed the English 
people, the taxing body itself felt the weight of the 
burden it imposed; but Parliament felt no part of 
the weight of colonial taxation and had, therefore, 
a direct interest in increasing it. * * * 

The Stamp Act received the royal asssent on 
March 22, 1765, and it was to come into operation 
on the first of November following. The long delay 
which had been granted in the hope that it might 
lead to some proposal of compromise from America, 
had been sedulously employed by skilful agitators 
in stimulating the excitement; and when the news 
arrived that the Stamp Act had been carried, the 
train was fully laid, and the indignation of the colo- 
nies rose at once into a flame. 

A congress of representatives of nine States was 
held at New York, and in an extremely able State 
paper they drew up the case of the colonies. They 
acknowledged that they owed allegiance to the 
crown, and "all due subordination to that august 
body, the Parliament of Great Britain," but they 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 21 

maintained that they were entitled to all the inhe- 
rent rights and liberties of natural-born subjects; 
"that it is inseparably essential to the freedom of a 
people and the undoubted right of Englishmen that 
no taxes be imposed on them but with their own 
consent, given personally or by their representa- 
tives;" that the colonists "are not, and from their 
local circumstances cannot be, represented in the 
House of Commons of Great Britain ;" that the only 
representatives of the colonies and, therefore, the 
only persons constitutionally competent to tax them 
were the members chosen in the colonies by them- 
selves ; and that all supplies of the crown being free 
gifts from the people, it is unreasonable and incon- 
sistent with the principles and spirit of the British 
Constitution for the people of Great Britain to grant 
to his Majesty the property of the colonies." A pe- 
tition to the King and memorials to both Houses of 
Parliament were drawn up embodying these views. 

It was not, however, only by such legal measures 
that opposition was shown. A furious outburst of 
popular violence speedily showed that it would be 
Impossible to enforce the Act. In Boston, Oliver, 
the secretary of the Province, who had accepted the 
oflSce of stamp distributor, was hung in effigy on a 
tree in the main street of the town. The building 
which had been erected as a stamp office was leveled 
with the dust; the house of Oliver was attacked, 
plundered and wrecked, and he was compelled by the 
mob to resign his office and to swear beneath the 
tree on which his effigy had been so ignominiously 
hung that he never would resume it. A few nights 



22 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

later the riots recommenced with redoubled fury. 
The houses of two of the leading officials connected 
with the Admiralty Court and with the Custom- 
house were attacked and rifled, and the files and 
records of the Admiralty Court were burned. The 
mob, intoxicated with the liquors which they had 
found in one of the cellars they had plundered, next 
turned to the house of Hutchinson, the Lieutenant- 
Governor and Chief Justice of the Province. Hutch- 
inson was not only the second person in rank in the 
colony, he was also a man who had personal claims 
of the highest kind upon his countrymen. ♦ ♦ ♦ 

Although Hutchinson was opposed to the policy of 
the Stamp Act, the determination with which he 
acted as Chief Justice in supporting the law soon 
made him obnoxious to the mob. He had barely 
time to escape with his family when his house, 
which was the finest in Boston, was attacked and de- 
stroyed. His plate, his furniture, his pictures, the 
public documents in his possession, and a noble 
library which he had spent thirty years in collect- 
ing, were plundered and burned. 

The flame rapidly spread. In the newly annexed 
provinces, indeed, and in most of the West India 
Islands, the Act was received without difficulty, but 
in nearly every American colony those who had 
consented to be stamp distributors were hung and 
burned in effigy, and compelled by mob violence to 
resign their posts. The houses of many who were 
known to be supporters of the Act or sympathizers 
with the government, were attacked and plundered. 
Some were compelled to flee from the colonies, and 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 23 

the authority of the Home Government was exposed 
to every kind of insult. In New York the effigy of 
the Governor was paraded with that of the devil 
round town and then publicly burned, and threaten- 
ing letters were circulated menacing the lives of 
those who distributed stamps. 

When the first of November arrived the bells were 
tolled as for the funeral of a nation. The flags were 
hung half-mast high. The shops were shut, and the 
Stamp Act was hawked about with the inscription, 
'^The folly of England and the ruin of America." 
The newspapers were obliged by the new law to bear 
the staiap, which probably contributed much to the 
extreme virulence of their opposition, and many of 
them now appeared with a death's head in the place 
where the stamp should have been. It was found 
not only impossible to distribute stamps, but even 
impossible to keep them in the colonies, for the mob 
seized on every box which was brought from Eng- 
land committed it to the flames. Stamps were re- 
quired for the validity of every legal document, yet 
in most of the colonies not a single sheet of paper 
could be found. The law courts were for a time 
closed, and almost all business was suspended. At 
last the Governors, considering the impossibility of 
carrying on public business or protecting property 
under these conditions, took the law into their own 
hands and issued letters authorizing noncompliance 
with the Act on the ground that it was absolutely 
impossible to procure the requisite stamps in the 
colony. • ♦ ♦ 



24 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

Parliament met on December 17, 1765, and the at- 
titude of the different parties was speedily disclosed. 
A powerful opposition, led by Grenville and Bed- 
ford, strenuously urged that no relaxation or indul- 
gence should be granted to the colonists. In two 
successive sessions the policy of taxing America had 
been deliberate!}' affirmed, and if Parliament now 
suffered itself to be defied or intimidated, its au- 
thority would be forever at an end. The method of 
reasoning by which the Americans maintained that 
they could not be taxed by a Parliament in which 
they were not represented, might be applied with 
equal plausibility to the Navigation Act, and to 
every other branch of imperial legislation for the 
colonies, and it led directly to the disintegration of 
the Empire. The supreme authority of Parliament 
chiefly held the different parts of that Empire to- 
gether. The right of taxation was an essential part 
of the sovereign power. The colonial constitutions 
were created by royal charter, and it could not be 
admitted that the King, while retaining his own 
sovereignty over certain portions of his dominions, 
could by a mere exercise of his prerogative withdraw 
them wholly or in part from the authority of the 
British Parliament. 

It was the right and duty of the Imj)erial Legisla- 
ture to determine in what proportions the different 
parts of the Empire should contribute to the de- 
fense of the whole, and to see that no one part 
evaded its obligations and unjustly transferred its 
share to the others. The conduct of the colonies, in 
the eyes of these politicians, admitted of no excuse or 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 25 

palliation. The disputed right of taxation was es- 
tablished by a long series of legal authorities, and 
there was no real distinction between internal and 
external taxation. It now suited the Americans to 
describe themselves as apostles of liberty, and to 
denounce England as an oppressor. It was a simple 
truth that England governed her colonies more lib- 
erally than any other country in the world. They 
were the only existing colonies which enjoyed real 
political liberty. Their commercial system was more 
liberal than that of any other colony. They had 
attained, under British rule, to a degree of pros- 
perity which was surpassed in no quarter of the 
globe. England had loaded herself with debt in or- 
der to remove the one great danger to their future; 
she cheerfully bore the whole burden of their pro- 
tection by sea. At the Peace of Paris she had made 
their interests the very first object of her policy, and 
she only asked them in return to bear a portion of 
the cost of their own defense. 

Somewhat more than eight millions of English- 
men were burdened with a national debt of 140,000,- 
000 pounds. The united debt of about two millions 
of Americans was now less than 800,000 pounds. 
The annual sum the colonists were asked to contrib- 
ute in the form of stamp dutieswas less than 100,000 
pounds, with an express provision that no part of 
that sum should be devoted to any other purpose 
than the defense and protection of the colonies. And 
the country which refused to bear this small tax 
was so rich that in the space of three years it had 
paid 1,755,000 pounds of its debt. No demand could 



26 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

be more moderate and equitable than that of Eng- 
land; and amid all the high-sounding declarations 
that were wafted across the Atlantic, it was not difli- 
cult to perceive that the true motive of the resist- 
ance was of the vulgarest kind. It was a desire to 
pay as little as possible, to throw as much as pos- 
sible upon the mother country. 

Nor was the mode of resistance more respectable — 
the plunder of private houses and custom-houses, 
mob violence connived at by all classes and perfectly 
unpunished, agreements of merchants to refuse to 
pay their private debts in order to attain political 
ends. If this was the attitude of America within 
two years of the Peace of Paris, if these were first 
fruits of the new sense of security which British 
triumphs in Canada had given, could it be doubted 
that concessions would only be the prelude to new 
demands? Already the custom-house oflScers were 
attacked by the mobs almost as fiercely as the stamp 
distributors. * * * 

These were the chief arguments on the side of the 
late ministers. Pitt, on the other hand, rose from 
his sick bed, and in speeches of extraordinary elo- 
quence, which produced an amazing effect on both 
sides of the Atlantic, he justified the resistance of 
the colonists. He stood apart from all parties, and, 
while he declared that ''every capital measure" of 
the late ministry was wrong, he ostentatiously re- 
fused to give his confidence to their succesors. He 
maintained in the strongest terms the doctrine that 
self-taxation is the essential and discriminating cir- 
cumstance of political freedom. 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 27 

The task of the ministers in dealing with this 
question was extremely difficult. The great majority 
of them desired ardently the repeal of the Stamp 
Act, but the wishes of the King, the abstention of 
Pitt and the divided condition of parties had com- 
pelled Rockingham to include in his Government 
Charles Townshend, Barrington and Northington, 
who were all strong advocates of the taxation of 
America, and Northington took an early opportunity 
of delivering an invective against the colonies which 
seemed specially intended to prolong the exaspera- 
tion. * * * 

The Stamp Act had already produced evils far 
outweighing any benefits that could flow from it. 
To enforce it over a vast and thinly populated coun- 
try and in the face of the universal and vehement 
opposition of the people, had proved hitherto im- 
possible, and would always be difficult, dangerous 
and disastrous. It might produce rebellion. It 
would certainly produce permanent and general dis- 
affection, great derangement of commercial rela- 
tions, a smothered resistance which could only be 
overcome by a costly and extensive system of co- 
ercion. It could not be wise to convert the Ameri- 
cans into a nation of rebels who were only waiting 
for a European war to throw ofif their allegiance. 
Yet this would be tlie almost inevitable consequences 
of persisting in the policy of Grenville. * ♦ * 

The debates on this theme were among the fiercest 
and longest ever known in Parliament. The former 
ministers opposed the repeal at every stage, and 
most of those who were under the influence of the 



28 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

Kiiig plotted busily against it. Nearly a dozen 
members of the King's household, nearly all the 
bishops, nearly all the Scotch, nearly all the Tories 
voted against the ministry, and in the very agony 
of the contest Lord Strange spread abroad the re- 
port that he had heard from the King's own lips that 
the King was opposed to the repeal. Rockingham 
acted with great decision. He insisted on accom- 
panying Lord Strange into the King's presence and 
in obtaining the King's written paper stating that 
he was in favor of the repeal rather than the en- 
forcement of the Act, though he would have pre- 
ferred its modification to either course. The great 
and manifest desire of the commercial classes 
throughout England had much weight; the repeal 
was carried through the House of Commons, brought 
up by no less than 200 members to the Lords, and 
finally carried amid the strongest expressions of 
public joy. Burke described it as "an event that 
caused more joy throughout the British dominions 
than perhaps any other that can be remembered." 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 29 



Chap. III. THE BOSTON TEA PARTY. 

(1773) 

On Sunday, November 28th, the ship "Dartmouth" ap- 
peared in Boston harbor with one hundred and fourteen 
chests of the East India Company's tea. * * * 

Faneuil Hall could not contain the people that 
poured in on Monday. On the motion of Samuel 
Adams, who entered fully into the question, the 
assembly, composed of upward of five thousand per- 
sons, resolved unanimously that "the tea should be 
sent back to the place from whence it came at all 
events, and that no duty should be paid on it." 
"The only way to get rid of it," said Young, 
is to throw it overboard." The consignees 
asked for time to prepare their answer, and "out of 
great tenderness" the body postponed receiving it to 
the next morning. Meantime the owner and master 
of the ship were converted and forced to promise not 
to land the tea. A watch was also proposed. "I," 
said Hancock, "will be one of it, rather than that 
there should be none," and a party of twenty-five 
persons, under the orders of Edward Proctor as its 
captain, was appointed to guard the tea ship during 
the night. The next morning the consignees jointly 
gave as their answer : "It is utterly out of our power 
to send back the teas ; but we now declare to you our 
readiness to store them until we shall receive further 
directions from our constituents ;" that is, until they 
could notify the British government. The wrath of 



30 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

the meeting was kindling, when the Sheriff of Suf- 
folk entered with a proclamation from the Governor, 
''warning, exhorting and requiring them, and each 
of them there unlawfully assembled, forthwith to 
disperse and to surcease all further unlawful pro- 
ceedings, at their utmost peril." The words were 
received with hisses, derision and a unanimous vote 
not to disperse. "Will it be safe for the consignees 
to appear in the meeting? asked Copley, and all with 
one voice responded that they might safely come and 
return; but they refused to appear. 

In the afternoon Rotch, the owner, and Hall, the 
master of the "Dartmouth," yielding to an irre- 
sistible impulse, engaged that the tea should return 
as it came, without touching land or paying a duty. 
A similar promise was exacted of the owners of the 
other tea ships whose arrival was daily expected. 

In this way "it was thought the matter would 
have ended." "I should be willing to spend my for- 
tune and life itself in so good a cause," said Han- 
cock, and this sentiment was general; they all voted 
"to carry their resolutions into effect at the risk of 
their lives and property." 

Every shipowner was forbidden, on pain of being 
deemed an enemy to the country, to import or bring 
as freight any tea from Great Britain till the un- 
righteous Act taxing it should be repealed, and this 
vote was printed and sent to every seaport in the 
Province and to England. ♦ * * 

The ships, after landing the rest of their cargo, 
could neither be cleared in Boston with the tea on 
board, nor be entered in England, and on the twen- 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 31 

tieth day from their arrival would be liable to seiz- 
ure. ''They find themselves," said Hutchinson, "in- 
volved in invincible diflSculties." Meantime in pri- 
vate letters he advised to separate Boston from the 
rest of the Province, and to begin criminal prosecu- 
tions against its patriot sons. 

****** 

The sprit of the people rose with the emergency. 
Two more teaships which arrived were directed to 
anchor by the side of the "Dartmouth" at Griffin's 
wharf, that one guard might serve for all. * * * 
On Saturday, the 11th, Rotch, the owner of the 
"Dartmouth," is summoned before the Boston com- 
mittee, with Samuel Adams in the chair, and asked 
why he has not kept his engagement to take his ves- 
sel and the tea back to London within twenty days 
of its an'ival. He pleaded that it was out of his 
power. "The ship must go," was the answer; "the 
people of Boston and the neighboring towns abso- 
lutely require and expect it ;" and they bade him ask 
for a clearance and pass, with proper witnesses of 
his demand. "Were it mine," said a leading mer- 
chant, "I would certainly send it back. Hutchinson 
acquainted Admiral Montagu with what was pass- 
ing, on which the "Active" and the "Kingfisher," 
though they had been laid up for the winter, were 
sent to guard the passages out of the harbor. At 
the same time orders were given by the Governor to 
load the guns at the Castle, so that no vessel, except 
coasters, might go to sea without a permit. He had 
no thought of what was to happen; the wealth of 
Hancock, Phillips, Eowe, Dennie, and so many other 



32 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

men of property seemed to him a security against 
violence, and he flattered himself that he had in- 
creased the perplexities of the committee. 

The line of policy adopted was, if possible, to get 
the tea carried back to London uninjured in the ves- 
sel in which it came. A meeting of the people on 
Tuesday afternoon directed and, as it were, "com- 
pelled" Rotch, the owner of the "Dartmouth," to 
apply for a clearance. At ten o'clock on the 15th 
Rotch was escorted by his witnesses to the custom- 
house, where the collector and comptroller unequivo- 
cally and finally refused to grant his ship a clear- 
ance till it should be discharged of the tea. 

Hutchinson began to clutch at victory ; "for," said 
he, "it is notorious the ship can not pass the Castle 
without a permit from me, and that I shall refuse." 

The morning of Thursday, December 16, 1773, 
dawned upon Boston a day by far the most momen- 
tous in its annals. Beware, little town; count the 
cost, and know well, if you dare defy the wrath of 
Great Britain, and if you love exile and poverty 
and death rather than submission. The town of 
Portsmouth held its meeting on that morning, and, 
with only six protesting, its people adopted the prin- 
ciples of Philadelphia, appointed their committee of 
correspondence, and resolved to make common cause 
with the colonies. At ten o'clock the people of Bos- 
ton, with at least two thousand men from the coun- 
try, assembled in the Old South Church. A report 
was made that Rotch had been refused a clearance 
from the collector. "Then," said they to him, "pro- 
test immediately against the custom-house and ap- 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 33 

ply to the Governor for his pass, so that your vessel 
may this very day proceed on her voyage for Lon- 
don." 

The Governor had stolen away to his country 
house at Milton. Bidding Rotch make all haste, the 
meeting adjourned to three in the afternoon. At 
that hour Rotch had not returned. It was inciden- 
tally voted, as other towns had already done, to ab- 
stain totally from the use of tea, and every town 
was advised to appoint its committee of inspection, 
to prevent the detested tea from coming within any 
of them. * * * The whole assembly of seven 
thousand voted unanimously that the tea should 
not be landed. 

It had been dark for more than an hour. The 
church in which they met was dimly lighted, when 
at a quarter before six Rotch appeared and satisfied 
the people by relating that the Governor had refused 
him a pass, because his ship was not properly 
cleared. As soon as he had finished his report Sam- 
uel Adams rose and gave the word: 'This meeting 
can do nothing more to save the country." On the 
instant a shont was heard at the porch; the war- 
whoop resounded; a body of men, forty or fifty in 
number, disguised as Indians, passed by the door 
and, encouraged by Samuel Adams, Hancock and 
others, repaired to Griffin's wharf, posted guards 
to prevent the intrusion of spies, took possession of 
the three tea ships, and in about three hours three 
hundred and forty chests of tea, being the whole 
quantity that had been imported, were emptied into 
the bay without the least injury to other property. 



34 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

"All things were conducted with great order, de- 
cency and perfect submission to the Government." 
The people around, as they looked on, were so still 
that the noise of breaking open the tea chests was 
plainly heard. A delay of a few hours would have 
placed the tea under the protection of the Admiral 
at the Castle. After the work was done the town 
became as still and calm as if it had been holy time. 
The men from the country that very night carried 
back the great news to their villages. 

The next morning the committee of correspond- 
ence appointed Samuel Adams and four others to 
draw up a declaration of what had been done. They 
sent Paul Revere as express witli the information to 
New York and Philadelphia. 

The height of joy that sparkled in the eyes and 
animated the countenances and the hearts of the 
patriots as they met one another is unimaginable. 
The Governor, meantime, was consulting his books 
and his lawyers to make out that the resolves of the 
meeting were treasonable. Threats were muttered 
of arrests, of executions, of transportation of the 
accused to England ; while the committee of corre- 
spondence pledged themselves to support and vindi- 
cate each other and all persons who had shared in 
their effort. The country was united with the town, 
and the colonies with one another more firmly than 
ever. ' * ♦ 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 35 



Chap. IV. GOVERNOR HUTCHINSON'S 
ACCOUNT. 

The Governor was unable to judge what would be 
the next step. The secretary had informed him in 
the hearing of the deputy secretary, that if the Gov- 
ernor should refuse a pass, he would demand it him- 
self, at the head of one hundred and fifty men, etc. ; 
and he was not without apprehensions of a further 
application. But he was relieved from his suspense, 
the same evening, by intelligence from town of the 
total destruction of the tea. 

It was not expected that the Governor would com- 
ply with the demand ; and, before it was possible for 
the owner of the ship to return from the country 
with an answer, about fifty men had prepared them- 
selves and passed by the house where the people 
were assembled to the wharf where the vessels lay, 
being covered with blankets, and making the ap- 
pearance of Indians. The body of the people re- 
mained until they had received the Governor's an- 
swer, and then, after it had been observed to them 
that, everything wise in their power having been 
done, it now remained to proceed in the only way 
left, and that the owner of the ship, having behaved 
like a' man of honor, no injury ought to be ofifered 
to his person or property, the meeting was declared 
to be dissolved, and the body of the people repaired 
to the wharf and surrounded the immediate actors 
as a guard and security until they had finished their 
work. In two or three hours they hoisted out of the 



36 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

holes of the ships three hundred and forty-two chests 
of tea and emptied them into the sea. 

The Governor was unjustly censured by many 
people in the Province, and much abused by the 
pamphlet and newspaper writers in England for 
refusing his pass, which, it was said, would have 
saved the property thus destroyed; but he would 
have been justly censured if he had granted it. He 
was bound, as all the King's governors were, by oath, 
faithfully to observe the acts of trade and to do his 
endeavor that the statute of King William, which 
establishes a custom-house, and is particularly men- 
tioned in the oath, be carried into execution. His 
granting a pass to a vessel which had not cleared at 
the custom-house would have been a direct violation 
of his oath, by making himself an accessory in the 
breach of those laws which he had sworn to observe. 
It was out of his power to have prevented this mis- 
chief without the most imminent hazard of much 
greater mischief. The tea could have been secured 
in the town in no other way than by landing ma- 
rines from the men-of-war or bringing to town the 
regiment which was at the Castle, to remove the 
guards from the ships and to take their places. This 
would have brought on a greater convulsion than 
there was any danger of in 1770, and it would not 
have been possible, when two regiments were forced 
out of town, for so small a body of troops to have 
kept possession of the place. Such a measure the 
Governor had no reason to suppose would have been 
approved of in England. ♦ * * Notwithstanding 
the forlorn state he was in, he thought it necessary 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 37 

to keep up some show of authority, and caused a 
council to be summoned to meet at Boston the day 
after the destruction of the tea, and went to town 
himself to be present at it; but a quorum did not 
attend. The people had not fully recovered from 
the state of mind which they were in the preceding 
night. Great pains had been taken to persuade them 
that the obstruction they had met with, which finally 
brought on the loss of the tea, were owing to his 
influence; and, being urged to it by his friends, he 
left the town and lodged that night at the Castle, 
under the pretense of a visit to his sons, who were 
confined there with the other consignees of the tea. 
Failing in an attempt for a council the next day at 
Milton, he met them, three days after, at Cambridge, 
where they were much divided in their opinion. One 
of them declared against any step whatever. The 
people, he said, had taken the powers of government 
into their hands; any attempt to restrain them 
would only enrage them and render them more des- 
perate; while another observed that, having done 
everything else in their power to prevent the tea 
from being landed, and all to no purpose, they had 
been driven to the necessity of destroying it, as a 
less evil than submission to the duty. So many of 
the actors and abettors were universally known, that 
a proclamation, with a reward for discoverey, would 
have been ridiculed. The Attorney-General, there- 
fore, was ordered to lay the matter before the grand 
jury, who, there was no room to expect, would ever 
find a bill for what they did not consider an offense. 
This was the boldest stroke which had yet been 
struck in America. 



SS Patriotism in Washington's Time. 



Chap. V. PATRICK HENRY'S CALL 
TO ARMS. 

(1775) . 

On Monday, the 20th of March, 1775, the conven- 
tion of delegates from the several counties and cor- 
porations of Virginia met for the second time. This 
assembly was held in the old church in the town of 
Richmond. Mr. Henry was a member of that body 
also. The reader will bear in mind the tone of the 
instructions given by the convention of the preceding 
year to their deputies in Congress. He will remem- 
ber that, while they recite with great feeling the 
series of grievances under which the colonies had 
labored, and insist with firmness on their constitu- 
tional rights, they give, nevertheless, the most ex- 
plicit and solemn pledge of their faith and true alle- 
giance to his Majesty King George III, and avow 
their determination to support him with their lives 
and fortunes, in the legal exercise of all his just 
rights and prerogatives. He will remember that 
these instructions contain also an expression of their 
sincere approbation of a connection with Great Brit- 
ain, and their ardent wishes for a return of that 
friendly intercourse from which this country had de- 
rived so much prosperity and happiness. These sen- 
timents still influenced many of the leading mem- 
bers of the Convention of 1775. They could not part 
with the fond hope that those peaceful days would 
return again which had shed so much light and 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 39 

warmth over the land ; and the report of the King's 
gracious reception of the petition from Congress 
tended to cherish and foster that hope and to render 
them averse to any means of violence. 

But Mr. Henry saw things with a steadier eye and 
a deeper insight. His judgment was too solid to be 
duped by appearances, and his heart too firm and 
manly to be amused by false and flattering hopes. 
He had long since read the true character of the 
British court, and saw that no alternative remained 
for his country but abject submission or heroic re- 
sistance. It was not for a soul like Henry's to hesi- 
tate between these courses. He had offered upon the 
altar of liberty no divided heart. The gulf of war 
which yawned before him was, indeed, fiery and fear- 
ful, but he saw that the awful plunge was inevitable. 
The body of the convention, however, hesitated. 
They cast around "a longing, lingering look" on 
those flowery flelds on which peace and ease and 
joy were still sporting, and it required all the ener- 
gies of a mentor like Henry to push them from the 
precipice and conduct them over the stormy sea of 
the revolution, to liberty and glory. * * * 

His was a spirit fitted to raise the whirlwind, as 
well as to ride in and direct it. His was that com- 
prehensive view, that unerring presence, that perfect 
command over the actions of men, which qualified 
him not merely to guide, but almost to create the 
destinies of nations. 

He rose at this time with a majesty unusual to 
him in an exordium and with all that self-possession 
by which he was so invariably distinguished. "No 



40 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

man," he said, 'thought more highly than he did of 
the patriotisDi, as well as abilities, of the very 
worthy geiitlemen who had just addressed the house. 
But different men often saw the same subject in dif- 
ferent lights; and, therefore, he hoped it would not 
be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen if, enter- 
taining as he did, opinions of a character very oppo- 
site to theirs, he should speak forth his sentiments 
freely and without reserve. "This,'' he said, 'Svas 
no time for ceremony. The question before this 
house was one of awful moment to the countr}'. For 
his own part, he considered it as nothing less than a 
question of freedom or slavery. And in proportion 
to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the 
freedom of the debate. It was only in this way that 
they could hope to arrive at truth and fulfil the 
great responsibility which the}' held to God and 
their country. Should he keep back his opinions at 
such a time through fear of giving offense, he should 
consider himself as guilty of treason toward his 
country and of an act of disloyalty toward the 
majesty of heaven, which he revered above all earth- 
ly kings." 

''Mr. President," said he, "it is natural to man to 
indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut 
our eyes against a painful truth and listen to the 
song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. 
Is this," he asked, "the part of wise men, engaged in 
a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Were we 
disposed to be of the number of those who, having 
eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things 
which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? 



Patriotism in Washington's Time, 41 

For his part, whatever anguish of spirit it might 
cost, he was willing to know the whole truth, to 
know the worst and to provide for it." 

"He had," he said, "but one lamp by which his 
feet were guided, and tliat was the lamp of experi- 
ence. He knew of no way of judging of the future 
but .by the past. And, judging by the past, he 
wished to know what there had been in the conduct 
of the British ministry for the last ten years to jus- 
tify those hopes with which gentlemen had been 
pleased to solace themselves and the house? Is it 
that insidious smile with which our petition has 
been lately received ? Trust it not, sir ; it will prove 
a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be 
betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gra- 
cious reception of our petition comports with those 
warlike preparations which cover our waters and 
darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary 
to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we 
shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled that 
force must be called in to win back our love? Let 
us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the imple- 
ments of war and subjugation — the last arguments 
to which kings resort. 

"I ask gentelmen, sir, what means this martial 
array, if its purpose be not to force us to submis- 
sion? Can gentlemen assign any other possible mo- 
tive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy in this 
quarter of the world, to call for all this accumula- 
tion of navies and armies? No, sir, she has none. 
They are meant for us; they can be meant for no 
other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us 



42 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

those chains which the British ministry have been 
so long forging. And what have we to oppose to 
them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been 
trying that for the last ten years. Have we any- 
thing new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We 
have held the subject up in every light of which it is 
capable, but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort 
to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms 
shall we find, which have not been already exhaust 
ed ? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves 
longer. Sir, we have done everything that could be 
done to avert the storm which is now coming on. 
We have petitioned — we have remonstrated — we have 
supplicated — we have prostrated ourselves before the 
throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest 
the tyrannical hands of the ministry and parliament. 
Our petitions have been slighted ; our remonstrances 
have produced additional violence and insult; our 
supplications have been disregarded, and we have 
been spurned, \Aith contempt, from the foot of the 
throne. In vain, after these things, may we indulge 
the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is 
no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free 
— if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable 
privileges for which we have been so long contend- 
ing — if we mean not basely to abandon the noble 
struggle in which we have been so long engaged and 
which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon 
until the glorious object of our contest shall be ob- 
tained — we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must 
fight ! An appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts 
is all that is left us !" 



Patriotism in Washington's I^ime. 4^ 

"They tell us, sir," continued Mr. Henry, "that 
we are weak — unable to cope with so formidable an 
adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will 
it be the next week or the next year? Will it be 
when we are totally disarmed and when a British 
guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we 
gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall 
we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying 
supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive 
phantom of hope until our enemies shall have bound 
us hand and foot. Sir, we are not weak, if we make 
a proper use of these means which the God of Nature 
hath placed in our power. Three millions of people 
armed in the holy cause of liberty and in such a 
country as that which we possess, are invincible by 
any force which our enemy can send against us. 
Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. 
There is a just God who presides over the destinies 
of nations and who will raise up friends to fight our 
battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong 
alone ; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Be- 
sides, sir, we have no election. If we were base 
enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from 
the test. There is no retreat but in submission and 
slavery! Our chains are forged. Their clanking 
may be heard on the plains of Boston ! The war is 
inevitable — and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it 
come !" 

"It is vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentle- 
men may cry peace, peace — but there is no peace. 
The war is actually begun! The next gale that 
sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the 



44 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

clash of resounding arms ! Our brethren are already 
ou the field. Why stand we here idle? What is it 
that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is 
life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at 
the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty 
God — I know not what course others may take; but 
as for me," cried he, with both his arms extended 
aloft, his brows knit, every feature marked with the 
resolute purpose of his soul and his voice swelled to 
its boldest note of exclamation — ''Give me liberty, 
OR give me death !" 

He took his seat. No murmur of applause was 
heard. The effect was too deep. After the trance of 
a moment, several members started from their seats. 
The cry, "to arms'" seemed to quiver on every lip, 
and gleam from every eye. Richard H. Lee arose 
and supported Mr. Henry with his usual spirit and 
elegance. But his melody was lost amid the agita- 
tions of that ocean which the master-spirit of the 
storm had lifted up on high. That supernatural 
voice still sounded in their ears and shivered along 
their arteries. They heard, in every pause, the cry 
of liberty or death. They became impatient of 
speech — their souls were on fire for action. 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 45 



Chap. VI. WASHINGTON'S APPOINTMENT 
AS COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. 

(1775) 

The difficult question was, who should be com- 
mander-in-chief? Adams, in his diary, gives us 
glimpses of the conflict of opinions and interests 
within doors. There was a Southern party, he 
said, which could not brook the idea of a New Eng- 
land army commanded by a New England general, 
"Whether this jealousy was sincere," writes he, ''or 
whether it was mere pride and a haughty ambition 
of furnishing a Southern general to command the 
Northern army, I can not say ; but the intention was 
very visible to me that Colonel Washington was 
their object, and so many of our stanchest men were 
in the plan that we could carry nothing without 
conceding to it. There was another embarrassment 
which was never publicly known and which was care- 
fully concealed by those who knew it: the Massa- 
chusetts and other New England delegates were di- 
vided. Mr. Hancock and Mr. Gushing hung back; 
Mr. Paine did not come forward, and even Mr. Sam- 
uel Adams was irresolute. Mr. Hancock himself 
had an ambition to be appointed commander-in-chief. 
Whether he thought an election a compliment due 
to him and intended to have the honor of declining 
it, or whether he would have accepted it, I know 
not. To the compliment he had some pretensions, 
for at that time his exertions, sacrifices and general 



46 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

merits in the cause of his couiitry had been incom- 
parably greater than those of Colonel Washington. 
But the delicacy of his health and his entire want of 
experience in actual service, though an excellent 
militia oliicer, were decisive objections to him in 
my mind." * ♦ * 

The opinion evidently inclined in favor of Wash- 
ington; yet it was promoted by no clique of parti- 
sans or admirers. More than one of the Virginia 
delegates, says Adams, were cool on the subject of 
this appointment, and particularly Mr. Pendleton 
was clear and full against it. It is scarcely neces- 
sary to add that Washington, in this as in every 
other situation in life, made no step in advance to 
clutch the impending honor. 

Adams, in his diary, claims the credit of bringing 
the members of Congress to a decision. Kising in 
his place one day and stating briefly but earnestly 
the exigencies of the case, he moved that Congress 
should adopt the army at Cambridge and appoint a 
general. Though this was not the time to nominate 
the person, "yet," adds he, "as I had reason to be- 
lieve this was a jmint of some difficulty, I had no 
hesitation to declare that T had but one gentleman 
in my mind for that important command, and that 
was a gentleman from Virginia who was among us 
and very well known to all of us, a gentleman whose 
skill and experience as an officer, whose independent 
fortune, great talents and excellent universal char- 
acter would command the approbation of all Amer- 
ica and unite the cordial exertion of all the colonies 
better than any other person in the Union. Mr. 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 47 

Washington, who happened to sit near the door, as 
soon as he heard me allude to him, from his usual 
modesty, darted into the library room. Mr. Han- 
cock, who was our President, which gave me an op- 
portunity to observe his countenance while I was 
speaking on the state of the colonies, the army at 
Cambridge and the enemy, heard me with visible 
pleasure, tout when I came to describe Washington 
for the commander I never remarked a more sudden 
and striking change of countenance. Mortification 
and resentment were expressed as forcibly as his 
face could exhibit them. When the subject came 
under debate several delegates opposed the appoint- 
ment of Washington — not from personal affection, 
but because the army was all from New England 
and had a general of their own, General Artemus 
Ward, with whom they appeared well satisfied, and 
under whose command they had proved themselves 
able to imprison the British army in Boston, which 
was all that was expected or desired." 

The subject was postponed to a future day. In 
the interim pains were taken out of doors to obtain 
a unanimity, and the voices were in general so 
clearly in favor of Washington that the dissenting 
members were persuaded to withdraw their opposi- 
tion. 

On the 15th of June the army was regularly adopt- 
ed by Congress and the pay of the commander-in- 
chief fixed at five hundred dollars a month. Many 
still clung to the idea that in all these proceedings 
they were merely opposing the measures of the min- 
istry and not the authority of the crown, and thus 



48 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

the army before Boston was designated as the Con- 
tinental Arm}', in contradistinction to that under 
General Gage, which was called the Ministerial 
Army. 

In this stage of the business Mr. Johnson, of 
Maryland, rose and nominated Washington for the 
station of commander-in-chief. The election was by 
ballot and was unanimous. It was formally an- 
nounced to him by the President, on the following 
day, when he had taken his seat in Congress. Kis- 
ing in his place, he briefly expressed his high and 
grateful sense of the honor conferred on him and 
his sincere devotion to the cause. "But/' added he, 
"lest some unlucky event should happen unfavorable 
to my reputation, I beg it may be remembered by 
every gentleman in the room, that I this day declare, 
with the utmost sincerity, I do not think myself 
equal to the command I am honored with. As to 
pay, I beg leave to assure the Congress that, as no 
pecuniary consideration could have tempted me to 
accept this arduous employment at the expense of 
my domestic ease and happiness, I do not wish to 
make any profit of it. I will keep an exact account 
of my expenses. Those, I doubt not, they will dis- 
charge, and that is all I desire." 

"There is something charming to me in the con- 
duct of Washington,'' writes Adams to a friend ; "a 
gentleman of one of the first fortunes upon the con- 
tinent, leaving his delicious retirement, his family 
and sacrificing his ease and hazarding all in the 
cause of his country. His views are noble and dis- 
interested. He declared when he accepted the mii^hty 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 49 

trust that he would lay before us an exact account 

of his expenses and not accept a shilling of pay." 

» « * 

In this momentous change in his condition, which 
suddenly altered all his course of life and called 
him immediately to the camp,Washington's thoughts 
recurred to Mount Vernon and its rural delights so 
dear to his heart, whence he was to be again exiled. 
His chief concern, however, was on account of the 
distress it might cause his wife. His letter to her 
on the subject is written in a tone of manly tender- 
ness. "You may believe me," writes he, "when I 
assure you, in the most solemn manner, that, so far 
from seeking this appointment, I have used every 
endeavor in my power to avoid it, not only from my 
unwillingness to part with you and the family, but 
from a consciousness of its being a trust too great 
for my capacity; and I should enjoy more real hap- 
piness in one month with you at home than I have 
the most distant prospect of finding abroad, if my 
stay were to be seven times seven years. But as it 
has been a kind of destiny that has thrown me upon 
this service, I shall hope that my undertaking is 
designed to answer some good purpose. I shall rely 
confidently on that Providence which has heretofore 
preserved and has been bountiful to me, not doubt- 
ing but that I shall return safe to you in the fall. 
I shall feel no pain from the toil or danger of the 
campaign; my unhappiness will flow from the un- 
easiness I know you will feel from being left alone. 
I therefore beg that you will summon your whole 
fortitude and pass your time as agreeably as pos- 

4 



50 Patriotism in Washington's Time, 

sible. Notliing will give me so mucli satisfaction 
as to hear this, and to hear it from your own pen." 

And to his favorite brother, John Augustine, he 
writes: ''I am now to bid adieu to you and to every 
kind of domestic ease for a while. I am embarked 
on a wide ocean, boundless in its prospect, and in 
which, perhaps, no safe harbor is to be found. I 
have been called upon by the unanimous voice of the 
colonies to take the command of the Continental 
Army, an honor I neither sought after nor desired, 
as I am thoroughly convinced that it requires great 
abilities and much more experience than I am mas- 
ter of." And, subsequently, referring to his wife: 
"I shall hope that my friends will visit and endeavor 
to keep the spirits of my wife as much as they can, 
for my departure will, I know, be a cutting stroke 
upon her; and on this account alone I have many 
disagreeable sensations." 

On the 20th of June he received his commission 
from the President of Congress. The following day 
was fixed upon for his departure for the army. He 
reviewed previously, at the request of their officers, 
several militia companies of horse and foot. Every 
one wa^ anxious to see the new commander, and 
rarely has the public heau ideal of a commander been 
so fully answered. He was now in the vigor of his 
days, forty-three years of age, stately in person, 
noble in his demeanor, calm and dignified in his de- 
portment; as he sat on his horse, with manly grace, 
his military presence delighted every eye, and wher- 
ever he went the air rang with acclamations. * * » 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 51 

He set out on horseback on the 21st of June hav- 
ing for military companions of his journey Major- 
Generals Lee and Schuyler, and being accompanied 
for a distance by several private friends. As an es- 
cort he had a ''gentleman troop" of Philadelphia, 
commanded by Capt. M. Markoe; the whole formed 
a brilliant cavalcade. * * * 

Many things concurred to produce perfect har- 
mony of operation between these distinguished men. 
They were nearly of the same age, Schuyler being 
one year the youngest. Both were men of agricul- 
tural as well as military tastes. Both were men of 
property, living at their ease in little rural para- 
dises — Washington on the grove-clad heights of 
Mount Vernon, Schuyler on the pastoral banks of 
the upper Hudson, where he had a noble estate at 
Saratoga, inherited from an uncle, and the old fam- 
ily mansion, near the City of Albany, half hid among 
ancestral trees. Yet both were exiling themselves 
from these happy abodes and putting life and for- 
tune at hazard in the service of their country. * * * 

They had scarcely proceeded twenty miles from 
Philadelphia when they were met by a courier, spur- 
ring with all speed, bearing dispatches from the 
army to Congress, communicating tidings of the 
battle of Bunker's Hill. Washington eagerly in- 
quired particulars ; above all, how acted the militia ? 
When told that they stood their ground bravely, 
sustained the enemy's fire, reserved their own until 
at close quarters, and then delivered it with deadly 
effect, it seemed as if a weight of doubt and solici- 
tude were lifted from his heart. ''The liberties of 



52 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

the country are safe!" exclaimed he. The news of 
the battle of Bunker's Hill had startled the whole 
countrj'^, and this clattering cavalcade, escorting the 
commander-in-chief to the army, was the gaze and 
wonder of every town and village. ♦ ♦ ♦ 

Escorted by a troop of light horse and a cavalcade 
of citizens, he proceeded to the headquarters pro- 
vided for him at Cambridge, three miles distant. As 
he entered the confines of the camp the shouts of 
the multitude and the thundering of artillery gave 
note to the enemy beleaguered in Boston of his ar- 
rival. His military reputation had preceded him 
and excited great expectations. They were not dis- 
appointed. His personal appearance, notwithstand- 
ing the dust of travel, was calculated to captivate 
the public eye. As he rode through the camp, amidst 
a throng of officers, he was the admiration of the 
soldiery and of a curious throng collected from the 
surrounding country. Happy was the countryman 
who could get a full view of him to carry home an 
account of it to his neighbors. The fair sex were 
still more enthusiastic in their admiration, if we 
may judge from the following passage of a letter 
written by the intelligent and accomplished wife of 
John Adams to her husband : "Dignity, ease and 
complacency, the gentleman and the soldier, look 
agreeably blended in him. Modesty marks every 
line and feature of his face." 

With Washington, modest at all times, there was 
no false excitement on the present occasion; nothing 
to call forth emotions of self-glorification. The hon- 
ors and congratulations with which he was received, 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 53 

the acclamations of the public, the cheerings of the 
army, only told him how much was expected from 
him, and when he looked around upon the raw and 
rustic levies he was to command, "mixed multitude 
of people, under very little discipline, order or gov- 
ernment," scattered in rough encampments about 
hill and dale, beleaguering a city garrisoned by vet- 
eran troops, with ships of war anchored about its 
harbor and strong outposts guarding it, he felt the 
awful responsibility of his situation and the compli- 
cated and stupendous task before him. He spoke of 
it, however, not despondingly nor boastfully and 
with defiance, but with that solemn and sedate reso- 
lution and that hopeful reliance on Supreme Good- 
ness which belonged to his magnanimous nature. 
The cause of his country, he observed, had called 
him to an active and dangerous duty, but he trusted 
that Divine Providence, which wisely orders the 
aflfairs of men, would enable him to discharge it with 
fidelity and success. 

On the 3rd of July, the morning after his arrival 
at Cambridge, Washington took formal command of 
the army. It was drawn up on the common about 
half a mile from headquarters. A multitude had as- 
sembled there, for as yet military spectacles were 
novelties, and the camp was full of visitors, men, 
women and children, from all parts of the country, 
who had relatives among the yeoman soldiery. An 
ancient elm is still pointed out, under which Wash- 
ington, as he arrived from headquarters, accompan- 
ied by General Lee and a numerous suite, wheeled 



54 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

his horse and drew his sword as commander-in-chief 
of the armies. * * * 

(This well-preserved elm still stands in Cambridge, en- 
closed by an iron fence, in the highway, just beyond the 
grounds of Harvard University.) 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 55 



Chap. VII. THE DRAFTING OF "THE DEC- 
LARATION OF INDEPENDENCE." 

(177G) 

Mr. Jefferson was naturally urged to prepare the 
draft. He was chairman of the committee, having 
received the highest number of votes; he was also its 
youngest member, and therefore bound to do an 
ample share of the work; he was noted for his skill 
with the pen; he was particularly conversant with 
the points of the controversy; he was a Virginian. 
The task, indeed, was not very arduous or difficult. 
Nothing was wanted but a careful and brief reca- 
pitulation of wrongs familiar to every patriotic 
mind, and a clear statement of principles hackneyed 
from eleven years' iteration. Jefferson made no 
difficulty about undertaking it, and probably had no 
anticipation of the vast celebrity that was to follow 
so slight an exercise of his faculties. 

Jefferson then lived in a new brick house out in 
the fields, near what is now the corner of Market 
and Seventh streets, a quarter of a mile from Inde- 
pendence Square. "I rented the second floor," he 
tells us, "consisting of a parlor and bedroom, ready 
furnished," rent thirty-five shillings a week; and he 
wrote this paper in the parlor, upon a writing desk 
three inches high, which still exists. 

He was ready with his draft in time. His col- 
leagues upon the committee suggested a few verbal 
changes, none of which were important ; but during 
the three days' discussion of it in the house it was 



56 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

subjected to a review so critical and severe that the 
author sat in his place silently writhing under it, 
and Dr. Franklin felt called upon to console him 
with the comic relation of the process by which the 
signboard of "John Thompson, Hatter, Makes and 
Sells Hats for Ready Money," was reduced to the 
name of the hatter and the figure of a hat. Young 
writers know what he suffered, who come fresh from 
the commencement platform to a newspaper office 
and have their eloquent editorials (equal to Burke) 
remorselessly edited, their best passages curtailed, 
their glowing conclusions and artful openings cut 
off, their happy epithets and striking similes 
omitted. 

Congress made eighteen suppressions, six addi- 
tions and ten alterations, and nearly every one of 
these changes was an improvement. The author, 
for example, said that men are endowed with "in- 
herent and inalienable rights." Congress struck out 
"injherent"^ — an obvious improvement. He intro- 
duced his catalog of wrongs by these words: "To 
prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world, 
for the truth of which ice pledge a faith yet unsul- 
lied hy falsehood" It was good taste in Congress 
to strike out the italicized clause. That the pas- 
sage concerning slavery should have been stricken 
out by Congress has often been regretted ; but would 
it have been decent in this body to denounce the 
king for a crime in the guilt of which the colonies 
had shared? Mr. Jefferson wrote in his draft: 

"He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, 
violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 57 

persons of a distant people who never offended him, capti- 
vating and carrying them into slavery in another hemis- 
phere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation 
thither. This pii;atical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel 
powers in the warfare of the Christian king of Great Brit- 
ain. Determined to keep open a market where men should 
be bought and sold, he has prostituted his negative for sup- 
pressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or restrain 
this execrable commerce. And that this assemblage of 
horrors might want no fact of distinguished dye, he is now 
exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to 
purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by 
murdering the people on whom he also obtruded them ; 
thus paying off former crimes which he urges them to 
commit against the lives of another." 

Surely the omission of this passage was not less 
right than wise. New England towns had been en- 
riched by the commerce in slaves, and the Southern 
colonies had subsisted on the labor of slaves for a 
hundred years. The foolish king had committed 
errors enough ; but it was not fair to hold so limited 
a person responsible for not being a century in ad- 
vance of his age; nor was it ever in the power of 
any king to compel his subjects to be slave-owners. 
It was young Virginia that spoke in this paragraph 
— Wythe, Jefferson, Madison and their young friends 
— not the public mind of America, which was des- 
tined to reach it, ninety years after, by the usual 
way of agony and blood. * * * 

The "glittering generality" of the document, "all 
men are created equal," appears to have been ac- 
cepted, without objection or remark, as a short and 
simple reprobation of caste and privilege. Readers 
are aware that it has not escaped contemptuous com- 



58 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

ment in recent times. It would have been easy for 
the author of the Declaration — and I wish he had 
done so — to put the statement in words which parti- 
san prejudice itself could not have plausibl}^ pre- 
tended to misunderstand ; for, as the passage stands, 
its most obvious meaning is not true. 

The noblest utterance of the whole composition is 
the reason given for making the Declaration : "A de- 
cent RESPECT FOR THE OPINIONS OF MANKIND.'' This 

touches the heart. Among the best emotions that 
human nature knows is the veneration of man for 
man. 

During the 2nd, 3rd and ith of July Congress was 
engaged in reviewing the Declaration. Thursday, the 
4th, was a hot day; the session lasted many hours; 
members were tired and impatient. Every one who 
has watched the sessions of a deliberative body 
knows how the most important measures are re- 
tarded, accelerated, even defeated, by physical 
causes of the most trifling nature. Mr. Kinglake 
intimates that Lord Raglan's invasion of the Crimea 
was due rather to the after-dinner slumbers of the 
British Cabinet, than to any well-considered pur- 
pose. Mr. Jefferson used to relate, with much mer- 
riment, that the final signing of the Declaration of 
Independence was hastened by an absurdly trivial 
cause. Near the hall in which the debates were then 
held was a livery stable, from which swarms of flies 
came into the open windows and assailed the silk- 
stockinged legs of honorable members. Handker- 
chief in hand, they lashed the flies with such vigor 
as they could command on a July afternoon, but the 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 59 

annoyance became at length so extreme as to render 
them impatient of delay and they made haste to 
bring the momentous business to a conclusion. 

After such a long and severe strain upon their 
minds, members seem to have indulged in many a 
jocular observation as they stood around the table. 
Tradition has it that when John Hancock had affixed 
his magnificent signature to the paper, he said: 
"There, John Bull may read my name without spec- 
tacles!" Tradition also will never relinquish the 
pleasure of repeating that, when Mr. Hancock re- 
minded members of the necessity of hanging to- 
gether, Dr. Franklin was ready with his "Yes, we 
must, indeed, all hang together, or else most as- 
suredly we shall all hang separately." And this 
may have suggested to the portly Harrison — a "lux- 
urious, heavy gentleman," as John Adams describes 
him — his remark to slender Elbridge Gerry, that, 
when the hanging came, he should have the advan- 
tage, for Gerry would be kicking in the air long 
after it was over with himself. 

No composition of man was ever received with 
more rapture than this. It came at a happy time. 
Boston was delivered, and New York as yet but 
menaced, and in all New England there was not a 
British soldier who was not a prisoner, nor a king's 
ship that was not a prize. Between the expulsion 
of the British troops from Boston and their capture 
of New l^'ork was the period of the Revolutionary 
War when the people were most confident and most 
united. From the newspapers and letters of the 
times we should infer that the contest was ending 



GO Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

rather than beginuing, ko exultant is their tone; 
and the Declaration of Independence, therefore, was 
received more like a song of triumph than a call to 
battle. 

The paper was signed late on Thursday afternoon, 
July 4, On the Monday following, at noon, it was 
publicly read for the first time, in Independence 
Hquare, from a platform erected by Kittenhouse for 
the purpose of observing th^ transit of Venus. Cap- 
tain John Hopkins, a young man commanding an 
armed brig of the navy of the new nation, was the 
reader, and it recjuired his stentorian voice to carry 
the words to the distant verge of the multitude who 
had come to hear it. In the evening, as a journal 
of the day has it, "our late king's coat-of-arms was 
brought from the hall of the State House, where the 
said king's courts were formerly held, and burned 
amid the acclaniation of a crowd of spectators." 
Similar scenes transpired in every center of popula- 
tion and at every camp and post. Usually the mili- 
tia companies, the committee of safety and otlier 
revolutionary bodies marched in procession to some 
public place, where they listened decorously to the 
reading of the Declaration, at the conclusion of 
which cheers were given and salutes fired ; and in 
the evening there were illuminations and bonfires. 
In New York, after the reading, the leaden statue of 
the late king in Bowling Green was "laid prostrate 
in the dirt" and ordered to be run into bullets. The 
debtors in prison were also set at liberty. Virginia, 
before the news of the Declaration had reached her 
(July 5, 177fi), had stricken the king's name out of 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. Gl 

the prayer book, and now (July 30) Rhode Island 
made it a misdemeanor to pray for the king as king, 
under a penalty of a fine of one hundred thousand 
pounds ! 

The news of the Declaration was received with 
sorrow by all that was best in England. Samuel 
Rogers used to give American guests at his break- 
fast an interesting reminiscence of this period. On 
the morning after the intelligence reached London 
his father, at family prayers, added a prayer for the 
SUCCESS of the colonies, which he repeated every day 
until the peace. 

The deed was done. A people not formed for em- 
pire ceased to be imperial, and a people destined to 
empire began the political education that will one 
day give them far more and better than imperial 
sway. 

The ''Declaration" was read to the public in New 
York in what is now City Hall Park, the army of 
Washington, recently arrived from Boston, being 
present. 



62 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 



Chap. VIII. JOHN ADAMS' ACCOUNT. 

You inquire wliy so young a man as Mr. Jefferson 
was placed at the head of the committee for prepar- 
ing a Declaration of Independence? I answer: It 
was the Frankfort advice to jdace Virginia at the 
head of everything. Mr. Richard Henry Lee might 
be gone to Virginia, to his sick family, for aught 
I know, but that was not the reason of Mr. Jeffer- 
son's appointment. There were three committees 
appointed at the same time — one for the Declaration 
of Independence, another for preparing articles of 
Confederation, and another for preparing a treaty lo 
be proposed to France. Mr. Lee was chosen for the 
Committee of Confederation, and it was not thought 
convenient that the same person should be upon 
both. 

Mr. Jefferson came into Congress in June, 1775, 
and brought with him reputation for literature, 
science and a happy talent of composition. Writ- 
ings of his were handed about, remarkable for the 
peculiar felicity of expression. To a silent member 
in Congress he was so prompt, frank, explicit and 
decisive upon committees and in conversation, not 
even Samuel Adams was more so, that he soon 
seized upon my heart, and upon this occasion I gave 
him my vote and did all in my power to procure the 
votes of others. I think he had one more vote than 
any other, and that placed him at the head of the 
committee. I had the next highest number, and 
that placed me the second. The committee met, dis- 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 63 

cussed the subject and then appointed Mr. Jefifer- 
son and myself to make the draft, I suppose because 
we were the two first on the list. 

The subcommittee met. Jefferson proposed to me 
to make the draft. I said, ''I will not." "You 
should do it." "Oh, no!" "Why will you not? 
You ought to do it." "I will not." "Why?" "Rea- 
sons enough." "What can be your reasonsi?" "Rea- 
son first: You are a Virginian, and a Virginian 
ought to appear at the head of this business. Rea- 
son second: I am obnoxious, suspected and unpopu- 
lar. You are very much otherwise. Reason third: 
You can write ten times better than I can." "Well," 
said Jefferson, "if you are decided, I will do as well 
as I can." "Very well. When you have drawn it 
up we will have a meeting." 

A meeting we accordingly had, and conned the 
paper over. I was delighted with its high tone and 
the flights of oratory with which it abounded, espe- 
cially that concerning negro slavery, which, though 
I knew his Southern brethren would never suffer to 
pass in Congress, I certainly never would oppose. 
There were other expressions which I would not have 
inserted if I had drawn it up, particularly that which 
called the king tyrant. I thought this too personal, 
for I never believed George to be a tyrant in dispo- 
sition and in nature; I always believed him to be 
deceived by his courtiers on both sides of the Atlan- 
tic, and in his official capacity only cruel. I thought 
the expression too passionate and too much like 
scolding, for so grave and solemn a document; but 
as Franklin and Sherman were to inspect it after- 



64 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

ward, I thought it would not become me to strike it 
out. I consented to report it, and do not now re- 
member that I made or suggested a single altera- 
tion. 

We reported it to the committee of five. It was 
read, and I do not remember that Franklin or Sher- 
man criticised anything. We were all in haste. 
Congress was impatient, and the instrument was re- 
ported, as I believe, in Jefferson's handwriting, as he 
first drew it. Congress cut off about a quarter of 
it, as I expected they would; but they obliterated 
some of the best of it and left all that was excep- 
tionable, if anything in it was. I have long won- 
dered that the original draft has not been published. 
I suppose the reason is, the venement philippic 
against negro slavery. 

As you justly observe, there is not an idea in it 
but what had been hackneyed in Congress for two 
years before. The substance of it is contained in 
the Declaration of Eights and the violation of those 
rights, in the Journals of Congress in 1774. Indeed, 
the essence of it is contained in a pamphlet voted 
and printed by the town of Boston before the first 
Congress met, composed by James Otis, as I suppose, 
in one of his lucid intervals, and pruned and pol- 
ished by Samuel Adams. 

Adams wrote this account long after the event — • 
in 1822. 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 65 



Chap. IX. DECLARATION OF INDE- 
PENDENCE. 

''When, in the course of human events, it becomes 
necessary for one people to dissolve the political 
bands which have connected them with another and 
to assume, among the powers of the earth, the sepa- 
rate and equal station to which the laws of nature 
and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect 
for the opinions of mankind requires that they 
should declare the causes which impel them to the 
separation. 

"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all 
men are created equal; that they are endowed by 
their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that, 
among these, are life, liberty and the pursuit of hap- 
piness. That to secure these rights, governments 
are instituted among men, deriving their just pow- 
ers from the consent of the governed; that, when- 
ever any form of government becomes destructive 
of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or 
to abolish it and to institute a new government, lay- 
ing its foundation on such principles and organizing 
its powers in such form as to them shall seem most 
likely to effect their safety and happiness. Pru- 
dence, indeed, will dictate that governments long es- 
tablished should not be changed for light and tran- 
sient causes; and, accordingly, all experience hath 
shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, 
while evils are sufferable, than td fight themselVes 

6 



(56 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

by abolishing the forms to which they are accus- 
tomed. But when a long train of abuses and usur- 
pations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces 
a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, 
it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such 
government and to provide new guards for the'?; 
future security. Such has been the patient suffer- 
ance of these colonies, and such is now the necessity 
which constrains them to alter their former systems 
of government. The history of the present king or 
Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and 
usurpations, all having in direct object the establish- 
ment of an absolute tyranny over these States. To 
prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. 

"He has refused his assent to laws the most whole- 
some and necessary for the public good. 

"He has forbidden his Governors to pass laws of 
immediate and pressing need, unless suspended in 
their operation till his assent should be obtained ; 
and, when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to 
attend to them. 

"He has refused to pass other laws for the ac- 
commodation of large districts of people unless those 
people would relinquish the right of representation 
in the Legislature — a right inestimable to them and 
formidable to tyrants only. 

"He has called together legislative bodies at places 
unusual, uncomfortable and distant from the re- 
pository of their public records, for the sole pur- 
pose of fatiguing them into compliance with his 
measures. 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 67 

"He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly 
for opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on 
the rights of the people. 

"He has refused for a long time after such dissolu- 
tions, to cause others to be elected; whereby, the 
legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have 
returned to the people at large for their exercise, 
the State remaining in the meantime exposed to all 
the dangers of invasion from without and convul- 
sions within. 

"He has endeavored to prevent the population of 
these States; for that purpose, obstructing the laws 
for naturalization of foreigners, refusing to pass 
others to encourage their migration hither, and rais- 
ing the conditions of new appropriations of lands. 

"He has obstructed the administration of justice 
by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judi- 
ciary powers. 

"He has made judges dependent on his will alone, 
for the tenure of offices and the amount and pay- 
ment of their salaries. 

"He has erected a multitude of new ofiices and 
sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people 
and eat out their substance. 

"He has kept among us, in times of peace, stand- 
ing armies, without the consent of our legislature. 

"He has affected to render the military indepen- 
dent of and superior to the civil power. 

"He has combined with others to subject us to a 
jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution and unac- 
knowledged by our laws, giving his assent to their 
acts of pretended legislation; for quartering large 



68 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

bodies of armed troops among us, for protecting them 
by a mock trial from punishment for any murders 
which they should commit on the inhabitants of 
these States; for cutting off our trade with all parts 
of the world; for imposing taxes on us without our 
consent; for depriving us, in many cases, of the bene- 
fits of trial by jury; for transporting us beyond 
seas to be tried for pretended offenses; for abolish- 
ing the free system of English laws in a neighbor- 
ing Province, establishing therein an arbitrary gov- 
ernment, and enlarging its boundaries ,so as to ren- 
der it at once an example and fit instrument for in- 
troducing the same absolute rule into these colonies; 
for taking away our charters, abolishing our most 
valuable laws and altering, fundamentally, the forms 
of our governments ; for suspending our own legisla- 
tures and declaring themselves invested with power 
to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. 

"He has abdicated government here by declaring 
us out of his protection and waging war against us. 

"He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, 
burned our towns and destroyed the lives of our 
people, 

"He is at this time transporting large armies of 
foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, 
desolation and tyranny already begun with circum- 
stances of cuelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in 
the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the 
head of a civilized nation. 

"He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken cap- 
tive on the high seas, to bear arms against their 
country, to become the executioners of their friends 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 69 

and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands. 
"He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, 
and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of 
our frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whose 
known rule of warfare is an undistinguished de- 
struction of all ages, sexes and conditions. 

"In every stage of these oppressions we have peti- 
tioned for redress, in the most humble terms; our 
repeated petitions have been answered only by re- 
peated injury. A prince, whose character is thus 
marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is 
unfit to be the ruler of a free people. 

'*Nor have we been wanting in attention to our 
British brethren. We have warned them, from time 
to time, of attempts made by their legislature to ex- 
tend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We 
have reminded them of the circumstances of our 
emigration and settlement here. We have appealed 
to their native justice and magnanimity, and we 
have conjured them by the ties of our common kin- 
dred, to disavow these usurpations, which would 
inevitably interrupt our connections and correspond- 
ence. They, too, have been deaf to the voice of jus- 
tice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, ac- 
quiesce in the necessity which denounces our sepa- 
ration, and hold them, as we hold the rest of man- 
kind — enemies in war ; in peace, friends. 

"We, therefore, the representatives of the United 
States of America, in general Congress assembled, 
appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the 
rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by 
the authority of the good people of these colonies. 



70 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

eolemnl}^ publish and declare that these United 
Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and inde- 
pendent States ; that they are absolved from all alle- 
giance to the British crown, and that all political 
connection between them and the state of Great 
Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and 
that, as free and independent States, they have full 
power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alli- 
ances, establish commerce and to do all other acts 
and things which independent States may of right 
do. And for the support of this declaration, with a 
firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, 
we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our for- 
tunes and our sacred honor." 



This declaration was coin})osed by Thomas Jeffer- 
son, member of a committee appointed for the pur- 
pose. It was signed in the State House at Philadel- 
phia, in a chamber of the riglit wing, on the ground 
floor, the first which you enter from the center hall 
of that building. 

A painting commemorative of this great event, in 
which are drawn the persons of its illustrious au- 
thors (whose names are here recorded) in their po- 
sition at the time of its being presented by the com- 
mittee for the approval of Congress, has been drawn 
by an American artist. Colonel Trumbull, and placed 
in 1819 in the Capitol at Washington. 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 71 

JOHN HANCOCK, President. 
CHARLES THOMSON, Secretary. 

New Hampshire — Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Mat- 
thew Thornton. 

Massachusetts — Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat 
Paine, Elbridge Gerry. 

Rhode Island — Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery, Oliver 
Wolcott. 

Connecticut — Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William 
Williams. 

New York — William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis 
Lewis, Lewis Morris. 

New Jersey — Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis 
Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark. 

Pennsylvania — Robert MOrris, Benjamin Rust, Benjamin 
Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George 
Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross. 

Delaware — Caesar Rodney, George Reed, Thomas McKeaa, 

Maryland — Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, 
Charles Carroll of Carrollton. 

Virginia — George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jef- 
ferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis 
Lightfoot Lee. Carter Braxton. 

North Carolina — William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John 
Penn. 

South Carolina — Edward Rutledge, Thomas Hayward, Jr., 
Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton. 

Georgia — Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton. 



Of these patriots, the last survivor, Charles Car- 
roll, died on the 14th of November, 1832, in the 9Gth 
year of his age. 



72 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 



Chap. X. THE YOUTH OF WASHINGTON. 

At the very time of the Congress of Aix-la-Cha- 
pelle, the woods of Virginia sheltered the youthful 
George Washington, who had been born of a West- 
moreland planter and whose lot almost from in- 
fancy had been that of an orphan. No academy had 
welcomed him to its shades, no college crowned him 
with its honors; to read, to write, to cipher, these 
had been his degrees in knowledge. And now, at 
sixteen years of age, in quest of an honest mainte- 
nance, encountering the severest toil, cheered on- 
ward by being able to write to a school friend, 
"Dear Richard, a doubloon is my constant gain 
every day, and sometimes six pistols;" himself his 
own cook, "having no spit but a forked stick, no 
plate but a large chip;" roaming over spurs of the 
Alleghanies and along the banks of the Shenandoah, 
alive to nature, and sometimes "spending the best of 
the day in admiring the trees and richness of the 
land; among skin-clad savages, with their scalps 
and rattles, or uncouth immigrants, "that would 
never speak English;" rarely sleejung in a bed; 
holding a bearskin a splendid couch; glad of a rest- 
ing place for the night upon a little hay, straw or 
fodder, and often camping the forests, where the 
place nearest the fire was a happy luxury — this 
stripling surveyor of the woods, with no companion 
but his unlettered associates, and no implements of 
science but his compass and chain, contrasted 
strangely with the imperial magnificence of the Con- 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 73 

gress of Aix-la-Chapelle. And yet God had selected, 
not Kaunitz or Newcastle, not a monarch of the 
house of Hapsburg nor of Hanover, but the Virginia 
stripling, to give an impulse to human affairs; and, 
as far as events can depend on an individual, had 
placed the rights and the destinies of countless mil- 
lions in the keeping of the widow's son. 
"Treaty of Aix-la-Cbapelle, 1748. 

From an old book, "True Stories of the Days of Washing- 
ton," 1869. 



T4 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

Chap. XI. FRANKLIN IN FRANCE. 

(177G-17S5) 

The early relations between the United States of 
America and the monarchies of Europe may be stud- 
ied with advantage by those writers who attach little 
or no importance to the personal factor in history. 
The prospects of the young republic were seriously 
and, to all appearances irretrievably, damnified by 
the mismanagement of Congress; but the position 
was saved by the ability, the discretion and the 
force of one single man. Benjamin Franklin was 
now past seventy. He had begun to earn his bread 
as a child of ten; he commenced as an author at 
sixteen, and he had ever since been working with 
his hands and taxing his brain unintermittently and 
to the top of his power. Such exertions were not 
maintained with impunity. He kept his strength of 
will unimpaired, his mind clear and lively, and his 
temper equable, by a lifelong habit of rigid abste- 
miousness; but he already felt the apj) roach of pain- 
ful disease that tortured him cruelly before the im- 
mense undertaking which still lay before him had 
been half accomplished. In September, 1776, he 
was elected Commissioner to France by a unanimous 
resolution of Congress, Franklin, in the highest 
sense of the term, was a professional diplomatist, 
for he had passed sixteen years in England as agent 
for his colony, and his individual qualities had 
gained for him a political influence and a social 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 75 

standing out of all proportion to the comparatively 
humble interests which he represented at the British 
court. The ambassadors of the Great Powers who 
were resident in London treated him as one of them- 
selves. He was old enough to be the father of most 
among them and wise enough to be the adviser of 
all, and toward the end of his time they united in 
regarding him as in some sort the doyen of their 
body. * * * 

From otlier Americans then resident in Paris 
Franklin received little help and a great deal of 
most unnecessary hindrance. Silas Deane, who had 
business knowledge and business aptitudes, was of 
service in arranging contracts and inspecting war- 
like stores, and Deane, after Franklin's arrival in 
Europe, had the good sense to confine himself strict- 
ly within his own province. But Arthur Lee was 
an uneasy and a most dangerous yoke-fellow. Lee 
was a sinister personage in the drama of the Ameri- 
can Revolution — the assassin of other men's repu- 
tation and careers, and the suicide of his own. He 
now was bent on defaming and destroying Silas 
Deane, whom he fiercely hated, and on persuading 
the government at home to transfer Franklin to 
Vienna, so that he himself might remain behind in 
France as the single representative of America at the 
Court of Versailles. 

The group of politicians in Philadelphia who were 
cabaling against George Washington maintained 
confidential and not very creditable relations with 
Arthur Lee at Paris. His eloquent brother was his 
mouthpiece in Congress, and he plied Samuel Ad- 



76 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

ams with a series of venomous libels upon Franklin, 
which were preserved unrebuked, and too evidently 
had been read with pleasure. 

The best that can be said for Arthur Lee is that, 
in his personal dealing with the colleagues whom he 
was seeking to ruin, he made no pretense of a friend- 
ship which he did not feel, and his attitude toward 
his brother envoys was, to the last degree, hostile 
and insulting. He found an ally in Ralph Izard, 
who lived at Paris, an ambassador in part ib us, two 
hundred leagues away from the capital to which he 
was accredited, drawing the same salary as Frank- 
lin, denouncing him in open letters addressed to the 
President of Congress, and insisting with querulous 
impertinence, on his right to participate in all the 
secret counsels of the French court. Franklin for 
some months maintained an unruffled composure. 
He had never been quick to mark offenses, and he 
now had reached that happy period of life when a 
man values the good will of his juniors, but troubles 
himself very little about their disapproval. He ig- 
nored the provocation given by his pair of enemies 
and extended to them a hospitality which they, on 
their part, did not refrain from accepting, although 
his food and wine might well have choked them. But 
the moment came when his own self-respect and a 
due consideration for the public interest forbade 
Franklin any longer to pass over their conduct in 
silence, and he spoke out in a style which aston- 
ished both of them at the time and has gratified the 
American reader ever since. He castigated Arthur 
Lee in as plain and vigorous English as ever was set 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 77 

down on paper, and informed Kalph Izard calmly 
but very explicitly that he would do well to mind his 
own business. 

Franklin, as long as he was on European soil, had 
no need to stand upon ceremony when dealing with 
a refractory countryman, for he was in great au- 
thority on that side of the Atlantic Ocean. Europe 
had welcomed him and accepted him, not as a mere 
spokesman and agent of the government at Philadel- 
phia, but as the living and breathing embodiment of 
the American Eepublic. No statesman would do 
business with anybody but Franklin. No financier 
would negotiate a loan except with him, or pay 
over money into other hands but his. "It was to 
Franklin that both the French and English minis- 
tries turned as if he were not only the sole represen- 
tative of the United States in Europe, but as if he 
were endowed with plenipotentiary power." Nine- 
tenths of the public letters addressed to the Ameri- 
can Commissioners were brought to his home; "and" 
(so his colleagues admitted) "they would ever be 
carried wherever Doctor Franklin is." He trans- 
acted his affairs with Louis the Sixteenth's minis- 
ters on a footing of equality and (as time Went on) 
of unostentatious but unquestionable superiority. 
Thomas Jefferson, an impartial and most competent 
observer, had on one occasion been contending that 
American diplomatists were always spoiled for use 
after they had been kept seven years abroad. But 
this (said Jefferson) did not apply to Franklin, 
"who was America itself when in France, not sub- 
jecting himself to French influence, "btit impodng 



78 Patriotism in Washington's Time, 

American influence upon France and upon the whole 
course and conduct of her national policy. * * • 

His immense and (as he himself was the foremost 
to acknowledge) his extravagant popularity was 
founded on a solid basis of admiration and esteem. 
The origin of his fame dated from a time which 
seemed fabulously distant to the existing genera- 
tion, llis qualities and accomplishments were genu- 
ine and unpretentious, and his services to' the world 
were appreciated by high and low, rich and poor, in 
every country where men learned from books or 
profited by discoveries of science. His ''Poor Rich- 
ard," which expounded and elucidated a code of 
rules for the every-day conduct of life with sagacity 
that never failed and wit that very seldom missed 
the mark, had been thrice translated into French, 
had gone through many editions and had been rec- 
ommended by i)riests and bishops for common use 
in their parishes and dioceses. 

As an inventor and an experimentalist, he was 
more widely known even than as an author, for he 
had always aimed at making natural philosophy the 
handmaid of material progress. Those homely and 
practical inventions by which he had done so much 
to promote the comfort and convenience of the aver- 
age citizen, had caused him to be regarded as a pub- 
lic benefactor in every civilized community through- 
out the world. His reputation (so John Adams 
wrote) was more universal tlian that of Leibnitz or 
Newton. "His name was familiar to government 
and people, to foreign countries, to nobility, clergy 
and philosophers as well as to plebeians — to such 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 79 

a degree that there was scarcely a peasant or a citi- 
zen, a valet, coachman or footman, a lady's chamber- 
maid or scullion in the kitchen who did not consider 
him a friend to human kind." If Franklin, at seven- 
ty years of age, had visited France as a private tour- 
ist, his progress through her cities would have been 
one long ovation, and her enthusiasm transcended 
all bounds when, coming as an ambassador from a 
new world beyond the seas, he appealed to French 
chivalry on behalf of a young nation struggling for 
freedom. * * * 

When he appeared in public he was dressed in 
good broadcloth of sober tint; conspicuous with his 
long, straight hair, whitened by age and not by art, 
and wearing a pair of spectacles to remedy an old 
man's dimness of vision, and a cap of fine marten's 
fur, because he had an old man's susceptibility to 
cold. 

Franklin's costume had not been designed with 
any idea of pleasing the Parisians, but it obtained 
an extraordinary success and has left a mark on 
history. Fine gentlemen, with their heads full of 
the new philosophy, regarded his unembroidered 
coat and unpowdered locks as a tacit but visible pro- 
test against those luxuries and artificialities which 
they all condemned, but had not the smallest inten- 
tion of themselves renouncing. He reminded them 
of everything and everybody that Jean -Taques Rous- 
seau had taught them to admire. The Comte de 
Segur declared that "Franklin's antique and patri- 
archal aspect seemed to transport into the midst of 
an enervated and senile civilization a Republican 



80 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

of Kome of the time of Cato and Fabius, or a sage 
who had consorted with Plato." Some compared 
him to Diogenes, and some to Phocion — about whom 
they can have known very little — for, if Phocion 
had been a Pennsylvanian of Anno Domini 1776, he 
would, beyond all question, have been a strenuous 
and uncompromising supporter of the British con- 
nection. Readers of Emile, who then comprised 
three-fourths of the fashionable world, delighted to 
recognize in the American stranger an express and 
living image of the Savoyard Vicar, and it was be- 
lieved, with some reason, that his views on religion 
nearly corresponded to those of Rousseau's famous 
ecclesiastic, although Franklin would most certainly 
have compressed his profession of faith into much 
shorter compass. The great French ladies were at- 
tracted and fascinated by his quiet self-possession, 
his benign courtesy and his playful yet always ra- 
tional conversation. The ardor of Franklin's votar- 
ies sometimes manifested itself with an exuberance 
which made it diflScult for him to keep his counte- 
nance. 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 81 



Chap. XII. TREASON. 

Perhaps true Patriotism is shown out more clearly 
when contrasted with its opposite, namely: Treason! 
No history is complete without its good and bad, its 
victories and losses ; all told, as near as possible, just 
as they happened ; and the War of the Revolution is 
no exception to the rule ; and to leave out one of the 
most momentous occurrences of those troublous 
times would be to leave the history incomplete ; and, 
although true Patriotism needs no light or other 
glamour over it to make it shine out in all its glory 
and its true value appreciated, yet the history of the 
times mentioned would be incomplete without the 
one DARK spot which stands out so vividly. 

The following extracts from the times and days of 
the Revolution will not be out of order in the present 
work. The cause or causes which were potent fac- 
tors in bringing about the treasonable actions of 
Benedict Arnold have been laid to many hypothe- 
ses ; some have said that because he married an Eng- 
lish woman she may have had something to do with 
it ; he was ambitious, and he thought he was treated 
unfairly, that he should have been given a higher 
command than a garrisoned fort, and a command 
which would bring into action his restless spirit, 
and an opportunity to display his extraordinary 
genius and his military prowess to greater advan- 
tage. West Point was to him like a prison or a 
circumscribed space where he was prevented show- 
ing his "spread-agle" powers to the best advantage, 

6 



82 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

He lived over again the Battle of Saratoga, and no 
doubt every time he stood on the leg which was shot 
in the cause, or everj' time he dressed the wound 
that would not heal, he perhaps compared his fate 
to those who were more fortunate than he and who, 
to his mind, were inferior to him in military genious, 
and perhaps he felt piqued and disappointed because 
he was not preferred to them. Perhaps the winter 
of 1775-1776, during which Arnold spent in Phila- 
delphia in company with the woman whom he subse- 
quently married, and where he often met Major 
John Andre, and who made himself very agreeable 
to the General by his dashing ways and boyish ap- 
pearance, had something to do with his behavior at 
West Point. Was it the "Old Year out and the 
New Year in" on that memorable occasion when 
Major Andr6 introduced General Arnold to Peggy 
Shippen? (December 31, 1775 — January 1, 1776.) 
From here up to the beginning of the chapter is by 
the author (P. J. B.). 

General Arnold had been appointed Governor of 
Philadelphia, expressly because the condition of the 
wound which he had received at Saratoga unfitted 
him for more active service. But the mental dis- 
comfort of his position bade fair to counterbalance 
the beneficial effect of bodily rest. Philadelphia was 
the residence of so many Tories and loyalists, that 
the greater I3art of the property in it belonged to 
[)ersons unfavorable to the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, if not disposed to accept almost any terms 
offered by the British government. 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 83 

A practical dilemma had arisen which could only 
be met by a somewhat summary remedy. Under the 
pretext of removing private property, a vast amount 
of goods had been transferred from the city to vari- 
ous places — to be eventually used, as every one knew, 
by the supporters of the British government, and 
even by the British army itself. To prevent this, 
Congress had ordered that no goods whatever should 
be removed from Philadelphia until a commission 
could decide whether such goods belonged legally to 
the King of England or any of his subjects; and, 
pending this commission, shops and stores were or- 
dered to be closed. 

The proclamation to this effect was written by 
President Reed, but the Governor issued it and had 
the odium of it. The sleek Philadelphians asked each 
other why this New Engiander was to rule them by 
martial law? And it must be owned that Arnold 
took small pains to propitiate them. His haughty 
temper, his magnificence — even his friendliness to 
Tory citizens — offended them ; and a mighty piece of 
work was made about some wagons belonging to the 
State which he had impressed in order to save some 
property belonging to persons obnoxious for having 
remained in the city during the British occupation. 

The Governor's approaching marriage with the 
daughter of a Tory gentleman was another griev- 
ance. It may be imagined how little he was likely 
to tolerate interference on such a matter as this ! 
His accounts for the expenses which he had incurred 
in Canada had been severely challenged, referred 
from one committee to another, and were still un- 
settled. 



84 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

The plan of a country life bad taken a great hold 
upon his imagination ever since he had seen Philip 
Schuyler at home in that fine old manor house near 
Saratoga, whose flames had lighted Burgoyne's last 
march. He had gone so far as to submit his enter- 
prise to the New York deputies in Congress, and 
John Jay had approved it and had written to tlie 
Governor of New York State to beg him to use his 
influence in favor of the scheme. 

Very early in February General Arnold deter- 
mined to go himself to Kingston, where the Legisla- 
ture of New York State then sat. On his way he 
visited the camp at Middlebrook, to which General 
Washington had now returned. He laid his plans 
before His Excellency — who, however, listened with 
a somewhat incredulous smile. His Excellency him- 
self desired nothing so much as to be able one day 
to return to that country life which General Arnold 
was describing so eloquently. ''But you, my dear 
sir, are, I fancy, a more restless spirit," he observed. 
"However, the undertaking is a useful one, and 
would, for some time at least, demand all your ener- 
gies." 

A disagreeable surprise, however, was awaiting 
the General. On his return to his ledging he found 
a messenger just arrived, splashed from head to foot 
with hard riding and wearing so grave a counte- 
nance that the General hastily asked if Miss Ship- 
pen was ill? 

"No sir, she was perfectly well when I left," re- 
plied the messenger, taking a packet from his pocket, 
"Will you please to look at this, sir? 'Twas sent 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 85 

to Congress the instant you had left the town. Ma- 
jor Clarkson agreed with me that you ought to be 
informed of it as soon as possible." 

''What!" cries the General, unfolding the packet, 
^'Charges! — and printed in the public journals, so as 
to prejudice me in the eyes of the people! This is 
the hand of Joseph Reed!" 

A pack of snakes-in-the-grass !" he cried, crum- 
pling the paper. "They knew weeks ago that I was 
going away, but they wait till I've turned my back ! 
The black-hearted turncoat charges me with having 
shut the stores! Congress ordered it, and he wrote 
the proclamation! But I'll be righted! I'll de- 
mand a court-martial! I'll go to Washington this 
moment! Give me your arm!" 

The discovery that a copy of the original draft 
had been sent to the various State Governors, and, 
indeed, to pretty nearly everybody except the ac- 
cused person himself, did not tend to abate the 
General's wrath; it could hardly increase it. No 
one could read the charges without perceiving that 
the persons who had drawn them up had lost all 
sense of judicial fairness. 

They were eight in number. The first accused. 
General Arnold of having, last spring, given a per- 
mit to a vessel belonging to disaffected persons to 
come into a port without consulting the Comman- 
der-in-Chief or the State authorities. 

The second related to the closing of the shops, 
and accused the Governor of having taken advantage 
of this to make purchases for his own benefit. The 
third charged him with imposing menial offices on 



86' Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

the sons of freemen of Pennsylvania, when called 
out by Congress on military duty, and with having 
justified himself on the ground that the citizen is 
lost in the soldier. The fourth related to the sloop 
"Active," a prize taken by some people of Connecti- 
cut, whose suit Arnold was charged with having 
illegally purchased. The fifth concerned the wagons. 
The sixth charged the Governor with furnishing a 
disaffected person with a pass ; and the seventh, with 
having ''indecently and disrespectfully" refused to 
give any explanation about the wagons. 

The last charge was less defined. It accused Ar- 
nold of having, during his command in Philadel- 
phia, ''discouraged and neglected" persons who had 
adhered to their country's cause "with an entire dif- 
ferent conduct towards those of another character,'' 
and added that if the said command was, "as is gen- 
erally believed/' to cost the United States four or 
five thousand a year, Pennsylvania would be very 
unwilling to pay any share of it. 

Three, at least, of these charges were obviously 
vexatious. In the others the frequent recurrence 
of such expressions as "it is alleged and believed," 
"it has been publicly charged," "it may be reason- 
ably inferred," looked, to say the least of it, as 
though the framers of the indictment had more ill- 
will than legal proofs. 

Major Clarkson (whose own name appeared in tlie 
charge about the pass) had instantly issued a card, 
begging the public to suspend their judgment, and 
the General himself now sent out another, in which 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 87 

he complained of the unfairness of this attempt to 
influence the public mind before trial. 

He had demanded a court-martial. The charges 
were referred to a committee, who reported that only 
four of them could come under the jurisdiction of a 
court-martial, the others being matters for a civil 
suit. The committee further reported that they had 
no evidence on any charge except the fifth and the 
seventh — the council, though repeatedly applied to, 
having not only refused to furnish any, but having 
threatened the committee and charged them with 
partiality for asking it. The committee added in 
conclusion that, after the unexampled measures 
which the council had employed against General 
Arnold, they were of opinion that no concession 
or acknowledgment could be expected from him. 

Upon this the General naturally considered him- 
self cleared. The committee had expressly acquit- 
ted him of any intentional wrong. He resigned his 
command, for which he had Washington's permis- 
sion, and wrote to Congress to beg them to report 
on his case at once and so set him right with the 
public. 

What then was his astonishment and indignation, 
when the council wrote to Congress that General 
Arnold had left the State while the charges were 
pending and that a misunderstanding had prevented 
them from presenting their testimony. 

By this time the matter had become a State ques- 
tion. The council had Pennsylvania behind it, and 
Pennsylvania must be kept in a good humor. So 



88 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

after another committee, a court-martial was at last 
ordered for the 1st of May. 

Before that day arrived the General was married 
to Peggy Shippen. The ceremony took place in her 
father's house. 

Sir Henry Clinton, Lord Cornwallis and Major 
Andr6 were tossing uneasily at sea when General 
Arnold's trial came on at Morristown. When the 
1st of May arrived the Council of Pennsylvania said 
they were not ready with their evidence, so the trial 
was put off to the 1st of June — by which time the 
British were going up tlie Hudson and American 
ojQScers had other things to do than to hold court- 
martials. 

The General endured the delay very impatiently. 
He had thought better of leaving the army, and now 
talked of seeking active service again as soon as his 
wounds would permit — above all, as soon as his cause 
was heard. He had spent most of the time at the 
beautiful country house which he had bought at 
Mount Pleasant, on the banks of the Schuylkill. 

It was now open war between the General and 
President Reed. When the discontents in Philadel- 
phia broke out in October, in the Fort Wilson riot, 
the President had ordered Arnold to leave the 
ground. He had obeyed, being no longer Governor 
of the city, but he had openly said to Mr. Wilson 
that the President had raised the riot and made no 
attempt to conceal his contempt for him. 

December was far advanced and the army had 
gone into winter quarters, when the court-martial 
met at last. It sat at Morristown, and thither the 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 89 

General went, confident of having honor triumphant- 
ly vindicated. 

The trial of a General pre-eminent for personal 
gallantry and still suffering from wounds received 
in the most brilliant achievement of the whole war, 
was a spectacle sufficiently odious in itself, and Ar- 
nold took care to make it as conspicuous as possible. 
Not content with allowing his wounds to plead for 
him, he appeared in the epaulettes and sword-knots 
which Washington had sent him, and in his defense 
he read the letter which had accompanied them, and 
also the letter of Congress, presenting him with a 
horse in the place of the two slain under him at 
Ridgefield — which horse, as every one knew, he was 
not yet able to mount. He rehearsed his services 
and his wrongs and commented with bitter irony on 
the President and the Council of Pennsylvania mak- 
ing it a charge against him that he had acted with- 
out consulting the Commander-in-Chief. 

^^Islon tali auwilio eget, nee defensoribu^ istis/' 
he said sarcastically, turning Virgil's line for the 
benefit of members of the Conway cabal there pres- 
ent. 

But he wound up with a more damning allusion 
still, and one which it was still more impossible to 
misunderstand. 

"I can say," he said, with a deadly emphasis on 
every word and steadily fixing his eye on Reed's 
pale face, "I never basked in the sunshine of my 
general's favor and courted him to his face, when I 
was at the same time treating him with the greatest 
disrespect and villifying his character when absent. 



do Patriotism in Washington's Time, 

This is more than a ruling member of the Council of 
the State of Pennsylvania can say — as it is alleged 
and believed.'' 

Having shot this arrow between the joints of 
President Reed's armor, the General awaited tlie de- 
cision of his judges, with very little doubt as to 
their verdict. 

The trial had occupied many days, and judgment 
was not given till the end of January. The court 
acquitted the General on two of the charges and ex- 
onerated him from all intentional wrong in the 
others, but found that in the matters of the sloop 
^'Active" and the wagons he had behaved impru- 
dently, considering his position, and sentenced him 
to be reprimanded by the Commander-in-Chief. 

Arnold was astounded, and public feeling ran so 
strong that the council themselves made haste to re- 
quest Congress to dispense with the reprimand — 
finding, as they said, that the General's sufferings 
and services were so deeply impressed on their 
minds as to obliterate every other sentiment. 

But Congress was inexorable — perhaps some of its 
members were not sorry to compel Washington to 
rebuke Gates' rival. 

Washington performed the unwelcome task as- 
signed to him as delicately as possible. ''Our profes- 
sion is the chastest of all/' said His Excellency, 
"even the shadow of a fault tarnishes the luster of 
our finest achievements. The least inadvertence may 
rob us of the public favor, so hard to be acquired. 
I reprimand you for having forgotten that, in pro- 
portion as you have rendered yourself formidable to 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 91 

our enemies, you should have been guarded and tem- 
perate in your deportment towards your fellow- 
citizens." 

This was all the censure. His Excellency only 
added an exhortation to Arnold to exhibit anew 
those noble qualities which had placed him on the 
list of his country's most valued commanders — and 
a promise to furnish him with every opportunity in 
his power of regaining his country's esteem. 

Mild as this reprimand was, it was still a repri- 
mand. The indiscretions of which Arnold had un- 
doubtedly been guilty — his haughty disregard of 
civil authority, his extravagance and ostentation — 
were all forgotten in the severity of his punishment. 
He had been subjected to the indignity of a public 
rebuke — for the sake, as all his friends said, and as 
most of the public believed, of conciliating the pow- 
erful State of Pennsylvania. Nor did the news from 
the South tend to make the country indifferent to 
this affront put upon a General who was always 
fortunate in the field and unfortunate only in the 
malice of his enemies. 

Arnold at West Point. 

When he first came to West Point, General Arnold 
appeared to be much depressed in spirits. This may 
have been due to his wound, which still occasionally 
troubled him, and to the lameness which must be 
so peculiarly irksome to a man of unusual strength 
and activity; but still more to the fact that he 
allowed his mind to dwell on the public dishonor 
(for so he persisted in regarding the reprimand) 



S2 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

which Congress had put upon him. As Mrs. Arnold 
had not yet arrived, the first few days were some- 
what lonely, except for the visits paid and received 
by Counsellor Smith, of Haverstraw. But the Coun- 
sellor, whose brother was Chief Justice of New York 
and whose family were all in the Tory interest, was 
suffering from a sharp attack of ague and was some- 
times too much indisposed to come as far as head- 
quarters, which were at Colonel Beverley Robinson's 
house, opposite West Point, and some eight or ten 
miles higher up the river than Haverstraw. 

Meantime very bad news was received from the 
South. Congress had apointed General Gates to 
that command when Lincoln was made prisoner at 
Charleston. He had hardly taken the field, when 
Lord Cornwallis fell in with him near Camden, on 
the great Santee river, and totally routed him, with 
the loss of all his cannon and baggage. Gates had 
fled, his army was destroyed and Tarleton was in 
hot pursuit of Sumter. It was but natural that, on 
this news coming, General Arnold should have made 
some cutting remarks at the expense of the unlucky 
Gates, especially as that hero had crowed somewhat 
too loud on his arrival in the South, as though the 
victor of Saratoga had but to come and see and con- 
quer. But these reverses made it all the more nec- 
essary to do something in the North, and early in 
September the General told his orderly that His Ex- 
cellency (who had recrossed and was now at Tap- 
pan) would be coming in a few days to see Count 
Rochambeau at Hartford. "And then," he added, 
''the blow will be struck." 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 93 

The General had a scheme in his head for estab- 
lishing signals as the enemy's posts as far as possi- 
ble. So bold had the news of Camden made Sir 
Henry Clinton, that a British sloop-of-war had come 
up the Hudson to within five miles of Verplanck's 
Point. The General went down in his barge on this 
errand of the signals, and was a night away, sleep- 
ing at Mr. Joshua Smith's. On his return he said 
that he had been fired on from the British gunboats 
and had had a very narrow escape. He particularly 
regretted this, as it had prevented his seeing Colonel 
Beverley Robinson, who had come down to the op- 
posite side of the river, hoping for an interview. 
Colonel Robinson's property had been confiscated 
on his taking the British side, and his object in 
seeking this interview was to try to recover at least 
a part of it. 

On the very day that His Excellency was expected 
he went down the river again, this time as far as 
Verplanck's Point; a flag came up from the "Vul- 
ture," the British ship-of-war, with a letter ad- 
dressed to General Putnam, "or the oflScer com- 
manding at West Point," so the General, of course, 
opened it, and found that it was another letter from 
Robinson, very urgently entreating an interview. 

"I really cannot oblige him by giving up my head- 
quarters," says Arnold, looking rather bothered. 
"Why don't he apply to Congress? They've got 
plenty of time to attend to him !" 

The General took his own barge across to the 
Ferry, to fetch His Excellency, who had with him 
the Marquess LaFayette, just returned from France. 



94 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

They dined at Haverstraw, at Mr. Smith's, who 
was all urbanity. After dinner General Arnold 
took an opportunity of laying Colonel Robinson's 
letter before His Excellency and asking him whether 
he thought he might go and hear what Robinson had 
to say? 

"Certainly not," replies His Excellency, glancing 
over the letter. "'Twould be a very improper thing 
for the commander of a post to meet any one him- 
self. Send a trusty messenger, if you think any end 
will be served. But this is a matter for the civil 
authorities." 

Very soon after dinner they went down to the 
river, where the barge was waiting. As the barge 
got well beyond midstream they could see the "Vul- 
ture" round the next point. 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 95 



Chap. XIII. ADVENTURES OF MR. JOHN 
ANDERSON. 

Mr. Smith went in a boat to the "Vulture," to 
take over a person who was introduced to him as 
John Anderson, who was to have an interview with 
a Mr. Gustavus; it was dark; and when they met 
the person at the Cove, Mr. Anderson did not recog- 
nize him, but noticed that he limped when he 
walked; they all went to the house of Mr. Smith, 
and when there was light enough to see his features, 
he recognized the person who was called Mr. Gus- 
tavus to be General Arnold himself. 

When they neared Mr. Smith's house they were 
challenged by a sentinel, and Mr. Gustavus gives 
the word. 

"Good God! am I within, the American lines?" 
says Anderson, in a low voice, to Mr. Gustavus. 
"You will be perfectly safe at Haverstraw," returns 

Mr. G . It is nearly day, and it is but one day's 

detention; tonight you shall return." 

When it is day they can see the "Vulture" from 
Mr. Smith's house, which commands a magnificent 
prospect. 

"What is he?" asks Smith. "He looks like a mere 
boy. I wonder they sent such a soft young fellow 
on such a ticklish errand." "He is a clever fellow 
in his way," replies the General. "He is a mer- 
chant — but, as you see, he must needs borrow a uni- 



96 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

form from an officer in New York to make himself 
look like a soldier." 

The General looks from him to Smith, and from 
Smith to him again. ''You must change that coat, 
Mr. Anderson," he says decidedly. "Mr. Smith will 
lend you a coat; he's much about your size. I've 
drawn you up a route; remember, above all, not to 
go by way of Tarrytown ! You've got my pass." 

Having reiterated these injunctions and made Mr. 
Anderson promise to sacrifice his borrowed martial 
plumes, the General departs, leaving Anderson to 
admire the prospect and wish himself once more 
safe aboard the "Vulture." 

"Your boots, sir, don't match the rest of your 
costume," said Mr, Smith; but Mr. Anderson vowed 
he could not change them. Then he put on his watch 
coat over all, and said that he was ready. Mr. John 
Anderson drew his right-hand bridle rein and turned 
his horse's head into the road leading to Tarrytown, 
as he had it in his heart to do ever since Major 
Boyd gave his well-intentioned warning. The cow- 
boys, at the worst, would only carry him off to New 
York, and the first captain of a vidette that saw 
them would set him free. 

Mr. Anderson was so deep in tliought as he rode 
along that he did not notice three young men, look- 
ing like Continental Militia, playing cards under a 
tree, and they were so deep in their game that they 
did not hear Mr. Anderson's horse's hoofs on the 
wide bit of grass land which bordered the road, un- 
til he was nearly upon them. 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 97 

"Stop! who goes there?" cries the tallest of the 
young men — a great big fellow, over six feet high, 
snatching up his rifle and presenting it at Mr. John 
Anderson. 

"I hope, gentlemen, you belong to our party," says 
Mr. Anderson, taking these for the cowboys. 

"What party's that?" asks John Paulding, still 
pointing his rifle at Mr. Anderson, to which that 
gentleman replies by asking, "Why, where do you 
come from?" 

"We come from below," says Paulding. 

At this Mr. Anderson's brow clears and he ex- 
claims joyfully : "If you're from below, so am I ! 
I am a British officer, out on particular business, 
and I hope you won't detain me a moment." 

To convince them that he is really a British oflS- 
cer, Mr. Anderson pulls out his watch and shows it 
to them. Paulding looks at it, at Mr. Anderson, 
and then at his tw^o companions. 

"You must dismount," he says. The other two 
have got hold of the bridle and now lead the horse 
on to the grass. 

"I'm happy, gentlemen, to find I am mistaken," 
he continues, fumbling in his pocket as soon as he is 
on his feet. I see you belong to the party from 
above. To convince you that I also belong to the 
party from above, there's a pass from General Ar- 
nold ; I'm in his service." 

As Mr. Anderson says all this in a slightly flurried 
manner, he takes out a small piece of paper and 
hands it to Paulding. "Look here, Ike," says Pauld- 
ing, in a low voice, to one of the others. 

7 



98 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

'*It ain't no good to me, I can't read it," says Ike, 
getting a tighter grip on the bridle as he speaks. 
Nor can his companion read, so Paulding reads 
aloud : 

"Headquarters, Robinson House, 

"Sept. 22, 1780. 
"Permit Mr. J. Anderson to pass the Gnards to the While 
Plains or below, if He chuses. He being on Public Business 
by my Direction. 

"B. Arnold, M. Genl." 

"That sounds all right," says Ike, and Mr. An- 
derson, quick as thought, remounts his horse, while 
Paulding gives him back his pass. Mr. Anderson is 
just in the very act of reining his horse into the 
road again, when Paulding suddenly says in a low 
voice to the others, "I don't like his looks! Don't 
let him go, Ike! Stop, sir! we ain't done with you 
yet; you've already give two different accounts of 
yourself. Are you got any letters or papers about 
you?" 

''No, none," says Mr. Anderson, changing color a 
little. 

"What was that paper as you had in your hand 
as you was a-coming along?" 

"Only a sketch of my route,' 'says Mr. Anderson, 
eagerly producing it. "I beg, gentlemen, you'll not 
detain me longer!" 

"We can't let you go till we've searched you ; you 
said, you know, you was a British officer," returns 
Paulding, and, in spite of Mr. Anderson's remon- 
strances, they compel him to strip, under a great 
whitewood tree, and discovered that he has upon 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 99 

him a couple of watches — one gold and one silver, 
seven guineas, and a little Continental money. 

Mr. Anderson submits to this indignity with as 
good grace as he can, assuring his captors the while 
that they are incurring a great responsibility in de- 
taining him — until he is desired to pull off his boots. 
Then he changes color, but an unarmed man must 
needs obey three loaded rifles, so he pulls them off. 
"There's nothing in 'em," says one of the men, tak- 
ing up and shaking them. 

"Feel of his stockings," says Paulding. 

At this Anderson becomes as white as his own 
shirt, and mutters what sounds like, "All's gone!" 

"There's papers inside his stockings," says Pauld- 
ing's lieutenant, on his knees at Mr. Anderson's 
feet. 

"Give 'em over to me," says Paulding, handing his 
rifle to the third man, and, looking at the backs of 
the papers, he exclaims, "This is a spy !" 

Then they examine Mr. Anderson more strictly 
still, even untieing his queue. But there is nothing 
else, and they make him dress himself again, he pro- 
testing all the while that they know not what they 
are doing and offering them any sum they like to 
name for delivering him at King's Bridge. 

"Would you give us your horse and saddle, them 
two watches and a hundred guineas, to let you go?" 
asks one of them, winking at Paulding. 

"Yes, or any sum you like to name, or any quan- 
tity of dry goods," says Mr. Anderson eagerly. 

The three consult together, keeping, however, their 
guns handy. 



100 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

They shake their heads. "I will pledge you my 
honor, gentlemen I" cries Mr. Anderson very earnest- 
ly. ''Sure, a thousand guineas " 

"Not if you was to offer us ten thousand," says 
Poulding. ''I'll lay my life as you're a spy, and we 
mean to take you to our lines." 

They rip open the saddle to see if there are any 
more papers, order Mr. Anderson to mount, march 
with him to North Castle, where they hand over to 
him his watches, papers and money and give him 
into the custody of Colonel Jamieson, and then they 
depart. 

The prisoner stoutly maintains his innocence and 
begs the Colonel to send word of his capture to Gen- 
eral Arnold, who would, he protested, instantly clear 
him. The papers found upon him were very com- 
promising, being full descriptions of the force and 
stores at West Point, and also of the works them- 
selves. They were evidently so very important that 
Colonel Jamieson finally resolved to dispatch them 
to the Commander-in-Chief and send Mr. Anderson 
himself back at once under an escort to General 
Arnold. 

Mr. Anderson was overjoyed when, late in the 
evening, another young officer made his appearance 
and informed him that he was to come with him to 
West Point at once. 

Mr. Anderson's arms were bound behind him, a 
soldier held the strap and the officer (whose name 
was Solomon Allen) ordered the escort, in the pris- 
oner's hearing, to shoot him if he tried to escape. 
They had gone somewhere about seven miles, when 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 101 

they heard horse's hoofs behind them, and an express 
came galloping up with a letter for the officer in com- 
mand of the party. "We are to leave the river road, 
as the enemy may have parties about, and take you 
back again by the other way," says the officer, when 
he had read the letter by the light of a lantern. 

'^There's no fear of a rescue, sir," says poor Mr. 
Anderson, who sees his last chance disappearing. 

But after a moments hesitation Allen says deci- 
sively, "We must obey orders!" 

And so they return to North Castle very early 
next morning; and Allen, with a guard, starts off 
immediately for West Point, with the letter which 
is to inform General Arnold that Mr. John Ander- 
son has been taken near Tarrytown, with important 
papers concealed on his person. 

Tallmadge was in command of Sheldon's advanced 
guard, and had been reconnoitering below White 
Plains. On his return Colonel Jamieson showed 
him the papers, which were just going to His Ex- 
cellency, and which were in General Arnold's own 
handwriting; and Tallmadge took the alarm and de- 
clared there was more here than met the eye. He 
tried hard to prevent the letter going to General 
Arnold, and insisted that Anderson should not see 
Arnold; his next care was the safe custody of the 
prisoner. North Castle was too near the enemy's 
lines, so betimes on Sunday morning he took An- 
derson to South Salem, Colonel Sheldon's headquar- 
ters, and kept watch upon him himself. 

The next day, towards the middle of the morning, 
Mr. Anderson observed that there was a large yard 



102 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

in front of the house, and asked to be permitted to 
stretch his legs there. Major Tallmadge disposed 
the guard so as to prevent any attempt at escape, 
and Mr. Anderson walked up and down for an hour 
or so, with Tallmadge and Lieutenant King, who 
had come over from North Castle. 

As they pace the yard, Mr. Anderson tells his 
companions that he is a New York merchant, that 
he had come with a flag up the Hudson to see a per- 
son on business, that the wind blew so hard the 
Dutchmen were afraid to return with the skiff, so, 
not caring to be detained, he had resolved to return 
by land. 

As Mr. Anderson walks, talking thus, Major Tall- 
made watches him narrowly, falling back a little, 
on pretense of speaking to a sentinel, to see him 
better. 

"Come here, King," he says, ''Mr. Anderson will 
excuse you an instant." Then he whispers in King's 
ear, "Notice his walk." 

"He is no merchant," whispers Tallmade, just as 
Mr. Anderson turns. "He has been bred to arms!" 

"I've had my own suspicions, too," says King, 
watching the elastic but measured stride of Mr. An- 
derson. 

Major Tallmadge leaves them for a while and 
King returns to the prisoner's side, very thoughtful. 
Suddenly Anderson exclaims: "I can bear it no 
longer! I must make a confident of some one, and 
you, sir, have seemed to befriend a person in dis- 
tress. Sir, I am not what I appear to be ! I am an 
officer of the British army, betrayed by a combina- 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 103 

tion of unfortunate circumstances into the vile con- 
dition of an enemy within your posts ; 'twas without 
my knowledge and against my express stipulation 
that I came there! I came in my regimentals; 
would to God I'd never quitted them! But what 
could I do? I go, as I believe and am assured, to 
neutral ground; I find myself unawares within your 
lines! I'm told I can't return the way I came, nor 
any way, unless I will consent to change my clothes. 
Good God ! Mr. King, consider my dilemma and ask 
yourself what I could do in it ? 

"I suppose, sir," says King very gravely, when Mr. 
Anderson thus passionately appeals to him, "I sup- 
pose, sir, I must not ask you your errand?" 

'"Twas, I frankly confess it, one of those advan- 
tages taken habitually in war," returns Mr. Ander- 
son. "A person was to give me information; when 
does a week pass that you do not yourselves receive 
information in a private manner?" Major Tallmadge 
becomes more thoughtful and uneasy than ever when 
he is told this. 

After dinner Mr. Anderson becomes still more 
restless and uneasy, and at length requests Major 
Tallmadge to procure him pen, ink and paper, as he 
wishes to write to General Washington. 

Mr. Anderson was a long while writing his letter, 
and was dreadfully agitated in the course of it. 
When he had finished it he read it over carefully, 
sighing once or twice as he did so. 

"You may as well read it," he says, throwing it 
across the table to Major Tallmadge and burying his 
face in his hands. 



104 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

Tallmadge takes up the letter. It begins "Sir — 

What I have said as yet concerning myself was in -^ 

the justifiable attempt to be extricated; I am too |fl 

little accustomed to duplicity to have succeeded." tR 

"A most unspy-like beginning," thinks Tallmadge, i^ 

glancing pityingly at Mr. Anderson's bowed head. '- 

He reads a little farther, and utters a smothered 

exclamation, at which Mr. Anderson's head sinks ,. 
lower still, till it rests upon the table. The passage 

which Major Tallmadge has just read runs thus: fc 

"The person in your possession is Major John Andre, * 
Adjutant-General to the British Army." 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 105 



Chap. XIV. HIS EXCELLENCY IS EXPECT- 
ED TO BREAKFAST. 

After the General had ridden off to Haverstraw, 
on Thursday afternoon, Mrs. Arnold invited some 
friends into her own sitting-room, where she was 
rocking the cradle. Peggy, as a young mother, was 
more charming than ever. She could not talk enough 
of Philadelphia, from which she had hardly ever 
been away before. She doubted, she said, that she 
would find West Point very dull after Philadelphia, 
though, to be sure, she would have been miserable 
there without the General. 

The next morning, before the sun had dried the 
heavy autumn dews, His Excellency's servants ar- 
rived with his baggage and announced that he would 
be at West Point by breakfast time. 

His Excellency would have been there the day 
before and had actually left Fishkill, when he met 
Chevalier de la Luzerne, the new French minister, 
on his way to visit Kochambeau, and was prevailed 
upon to turn back and pass the night at Fishkill 
with the Chevalier, who did not know that he was 
by this delay contriving for His Excellency to reach 
West Point in the very nick of time. 

Long before his baggage had arrived, His Excel- 
lency was in the saddle, with General Knox, the 
Marquess and their suites. "General, you are going 
in a wrong direction," says the Marquess, to whom 
His Excellency allows the familiarity of a son ; "you 



106 Patriotism in Washington's Time, 

know that. Mrs. Arnold waits breakfast for us — that 
road takes us out of our way." 

"Ah, I know you young men are all in love with 
Mrs. Arnold," returns His Excellency, good humor- 
edly. "But I must examine the redoubt this side 
the river, now we're here." His Excellency, how- 
ever, desires Dr. McHenry and Major Shaw to ride 
to the house and beg Mrs. Arnold not to wait for 
him ; he will be there in an hour. 

On His Excellency's aides delivering this message, 
every one sat down to breakfast, which was laid in 
that long, low room with the two windows. General 
Arnold seemed rather absent, while Dr. McHenry 
was telling him about the Chevalier. His aides, at 
the farther end of the table, observed to each other 
in a low voice that he was always put out when the 
French were being talked of. 

It was about ten o'clock and breakfast was half 
over, when a message was brought in that Lieuten- 
ant Allen was come with a letter from Colonel 
Jamieson. 

"Show him in," says the General, and Allen comes 
in and presents the letter, explaining that he would 
have been here before, but his guard being on foot, 
he could not ride fast. 

"Sit down, sir," says Arnold, slightly introducing 
the Lieutenant to Mrs. Arnold and the company. 
Then he opens the letter, and at the first glance 
rises hastily from his chair, saying that he is wanted 
at West Point immediately. 

"Tell General Washington I'm called over the 
river and will soon return," he says to McHenry as 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. lOt 

he goes out, and they hear him ordering his horse 
to be saddled instantly. 

As Mrs. Arnold was present, of course no remark 
could be made, and a somewhat awkward silence fell 
on the party, Peggy herself being rather uneasy as 
to what it could be which took her husband away 
when His Excellency was expected every moment. 

In a moment or two a message came that the Gen- 
eral desired to see Mrs. Arnold for a moment — up- 
stairs. 

As soon as Peggy is gone, tongues begin to wag. 
There is nothing, of course, in the General's going 
over to West Point, especially as he has not been 
there for some days, but his going without waiting 
to see His Excellency is certainly rather odd. Lieu- 
tenant Allen thinks there can be no harm in saying 
that all he knows is, that a person suspected to be a 
spy was taken on Saturday near Tarrytown; 'tis 
just possible there may be something wrong at West 
Point, and the General may have thought it better 
not to lose even an hour. 

Just as Allen was offering this vague explanation 
of the bombshell he seemed to have brought with 
him, they heard a shriek, then a bell ringing vio- 
lently, then the General's voice exclaiming in an 
agitated tone that Mrs. Arnold was taken ill; some 
one must attend to her directly, and a minute or 
two after, they heard him gallop away. 

Elijah Blake. 

The soldier states that he enlisted at Keene, New 
Hampshire, in May, 1780; Captain Houghton, Colo- 



108 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

nel Nichols; that he knew General Arnold; that he 
stood sentry at his door when the said Arnold came 
out and, not seeing his waiter, the General said to 
him: 

''Sentry, lay down your gun and saddle my horse 
quick;'' that he did so as soon as it could be done, 
and immediately General Arnold mounted him and 
said with a loud voice: "General Washington is to 
be here, sun an hour high;" then said: ''My leg 
pains me very much;" then he rode across the flat to 
the river, and forever after abandoned our Cause 
and joined the Enemy." 

As Major Tallmadge conducts his prisoner from 
South Salem to West Point, he asks Major Andr6 
whether he was to have taken an active part in the 
assault on West Point. 

At the question Andre's eyes light up and his 
cheeks glow. He forgets that he is a prisoner going 
to be tried for his life; he forgets that he is talking 
to his enemy, as he points Tallmadge to a table of 
land on the west shore. 

"I was to have landed there with a select corps," 
he says, "and then climb yonder height behind Fort 
Putnam; it overlooks your parade at West Point. 
We must have succeeded;, and the key of the country 
would have been in our hands !" 

As he speaks he seems as though he were entering 
the fort sword in hand ; Tallmadge takes fire himself 
and almost forgets what he is listening to. They 
have agreed on what they call "a cartel;" they may 
ask each other any question they choose, so long as 
they do not bring in a third person's name. Here 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 109 

Andre is firm ; he will not even say anything about 
General Arnold. 

"And what reward was you to have had?" asked 
Tallmadge, when he is again cool enough to reflect 
that the exploit which he has been hearing described 
is the storming of West Point by the British. 

^The glory, and to serve my king, would have sat- 
isfied me," says Andre. "But Sir Henry hinted that 
if we succeeded (and we could not have failed), I 
was to be made a Brigadier." 

"You could not have failed, indeed," says Tall- 
madge, as he thinks on what a precipice they have 
been standing. "You know the ground a vast deal 
better than I do myself." 

So the barge slides down between the solemn de- 
files of the Highlands. Though they should fall, 
they could not cover Arnold's shame. 

As they ride, the prisoner asks Tallmadge a ques- 
tion which has been hovering on his lips all day and 
intruding into all his protestations, that he cannot 
be considered a spy. 

"What do you suppose will be my fate?" he asks, 
trying hard to speak nnconcernedly. 

Tallmadge does not reply. Andre looks at him, 
but he has turned his face away. 

"WTiat will they do with me, do you think? he 
says again, his voice a little changed, strive as he 
will to keep it indifferent. 

"I had a dear friend, he was my classmate at 
Yale," says Tallmadge, his o\\ti voice much more 
constrained and unsteady than the prisoner's. "He 
went in disguise into your lines at New York to get 



110 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

us information, just after our defeat on Long Island. 
His name was Natlian Hale."' "He was hanged," 
says Andre in a strange, dull tone, as Tallmadge 
pauses. ''But he was a spy " 

The Trial. 

The board which was to try Major Andre was as- 
sembled in the old Dutch Church, a substantial 
structure standing on a knoll by the side of the post 
road, and shadowed by a clump of trees. Hither, 
where the Dutch farmers and their wives and chil- 
dren used to come up every Sunday in sturdy pro- 
cession to sit in their high-crowned hats and listen 
to a sound discourse on sovereign grace, John Andr6 
was brought on Friday morning to be tried as a spy. 

A great crowd had collected around the church, 
which was also surrounded by a strong guard. Gen- 
eral Washington was returned to his old headquar- 
ters at De Windt's house, near Sneeden's Landing. 
He had not seen the prisoner and, it was said, did 
not intend to do so. General Greene wa>s the presi- 
dent of the board; with him sat Lord Stirling, La 
Fayette and Steuben, Knox and St. Clair, John 
Starke, of Bennington, and that rebel namesake of 
Sir Henry Clinton's. 

There were no witnesses; not even Joshua Smith 
was called. What need was there? The letter which 
Major Andr6 wrote at Salem on Sunday afternoon 
was enough. His only defense was, that he had 
come unintentionally within the lines, and that he 
ought to be held to be protected by General Arnold's 
pass. 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. Ill 



Chap. XV. A SOLDIER'S DEATH. 

The messenger who carried General Washington's 
dispatch to Congress rode so hard that he reached 
Philadelphia the same night. By Wednesday every 
one had heard the news. 

During the next few days nothing was talked of 
in Philadelphia but the treason of General Arnold 
and the fate of Major Andr6. 

But a public demonstration was not wanting. On 
Saturday night, just after dark, a procession passed 
along High street to Market Hill, escorting a dismal 
pageant. The eflSgy of the traitor was sitting in a 
cart, holding a mask in one hand and in the other 
a letter signed — in letters big enough for every one 
to read — Beelzebub; Arnold was represented with 
two faces, and behind him stood the devil, pitchfork 
in hand, and shaking a purse in his ear. 

Five o'clock on Sunday afternoon had been fixed 
for the execution, and a vast concourse assembled 
at that hour on a hill but a little way out of Tap- 
pan, whereon the night before the gibbet had been 
set up. But the conference at Dobbs' Ferry was so 
long that the execution was deferred till tomorrow. 
General Washington was waiting to see whether 
Benedict Arnold would come to redeem the prisoner. 

A little before noon next day Major Andr6 set out 
on his last journey. All the general officers then in 
camp, except His Excellency and his staff, followed 
General Greene, who led the way. Then came a 
guard of five hundred men, and in the midst of 



112 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

them a wagon with a coflSn in it. Just behind the 
wagon walked the prisoner. He leaned on the arms 
of the two captains especially appointed to guard 
him; but his step was as light as though he had been 
going on parade, and it was noticed that he kept 
time to the band, which played a lively tune. He 
was dressed in full uniform, except that, of course, 
he wore no sword or sash or gorget. In his bright 
scarlet coat, faced with green, his buff waistcoat 
and small clothes, with his hair carefully dressed in 
a long queue, he appeared the least mournful figure 
there. 

All the way was lined with people, who saw him 
pass with grave and pitying faces. One little girl, 
suddenly stepping out of the crowd, thrust a bag of 
fresh-gathered peaches into his hand. He smiled 
and thanked her, and carried them a little way ; but 
he was come to that hour when the grasshopper is a 
burden, and he was presently glad to give them to 
some one near him. 

He had received no reply to his letter. General 
Washington had, it was said in camp, been disposed 
to yield; but Greene had insisted that if Major 
Andr6 was not a spy, he had incurred no penalty 
whatever. If they did not hang him, they ought to 
let him go ; there could be nothing between. And so, 
as his request could not be granted. His Excellency 
had thought it both more proper and more merciful 
not to reply at all. 

Andr6 talked as he went, and betrayed no sign of 
discomposure, until at the foot of the ascent which 
led up to the appointed place, he came in sight of 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 113 

the gallows. As he saw this symbol of ignominy 
rising up high into the clear blue air, his counte- 
nance fell. 

"Gentlemen, I am disappointed !" he said. "I ex- 
pected my request would have been granted !" 

Meanwhile the wagon had been driven under the 
gallows. Andre, halting a few yards from it, once 
more looked around, perhaps he too had dreamed of 
that horseman coming to die in his stead ! Then, as 
the guard fell in and the hangman stood ready, he 
bowed his head a little and looked down at himself, 
rolling over a stone the while with his foot, biting 
his lips and shaking his head as though he were 
thinking, "This surely is not the fruit that grows 
on gallows trees." 

He was rather pale, except for a small flush which 
came and went on his left cheek. For a moment or 
two he seemed to struggle with a choking in his 
throat, but he betrayed no confusion, and when, all 
being ready, the commanding oflScer desired him to 
mount the wagon, he shook hands with Tallmadge 
and the rest, who were all in tears, and, going to the 
back of the wagon, laid his hands on the side and 
made as though he would spring up into it. But 
the shadow of the gibbet lay on it, and he faltered 
and did not take the leap, but climbed up and stood 
there beside his coffin, while all the people held their 
breath. There was silence so deep that, if that horse- 
man had been on his way, they could have heard 
him coming. 

While Andre stood thus the commanding officer 
(it was Colonel Scammell, the Deputy Adjutant-Gen- 
eral) read the order of execution. 

8 



114 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

Major Andr^ had stepped upon the coffin and paced 
it out once — then, standing still, his hands resting 
on his hips, he let his eves roam over the wide land- 
scape and the wider blue sky, looking high above 
that grim bridge of the gallows which spanned it — 
and the vast silent multitude come there to see him 
die. 

So he stood, while Colonel Scammell, the sun 
flashing on his drawn sword as he sat on his horse 
close beside the wagon, read from the paper in his 
hand. 

"Major Andr6," says Scammell, when the reading 
is over, "if you have anything to say, you can speak 
now, for you have but a short time to live." 

Major Andre uncovers and bows as he replies : "I 
have nothing more to say, gentlemen, but this — you 
all bear me witness that I meet my fate as a brave 
man." 

Then he gives his hat to his weeping servant and 
takes the halter from the hangman — who has let his 
beard grow and blackened his face to disguise his 
identity — and puts it over his head, first unpinning 
his stock and shirt collar. He draws the knot close 
under his ear, and has already blindfolded his own 
eyes with a white handkerchief, which he took from, 
the pocket of his coat, when Scammell says aloud 
that his arms must be bound. On this. Major Andr6 
takes off the handkerchief while he finds another, 
not losing his calmness even at this cruel moment, 
and then replacing it, has this time seen his last of 
earthly sights. 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 115 

The hangman bound his arms behind him, the 
only office he had been permitted to perform, and, 
getting off the wagon, went to his horse's head. 

There was an awful silence, and then Scammell let 
his sword fall, the signal agreed upon, and the 
wagon was driven off so suddenly that there was no 
struggle. 

After the first tremendous swing, the quivering 
rope slowly grew still. Long after that the multi- 
tude stood in death-like silence, not one of all that 
vast assembly stirred or spoke (or so at least it 
seemed) for full half an hour. At the end of that 
time, with every precaution of decency and respect, 
the body was cut down and laid in the coffin. 



116 Patriotism ix Washington's Time. 



Chap. XVI. MAJOR ANDRE WAS EXECUTED 

AS A SPY AT TAPPAN, NEW YORK, 

OCTOBER 2, 1780. 

No investigation revealed any more than was al- 
ready known of Arnold's plot. All the officers con- 
nected with his command were fully acquitted of any 
knowledge of his designs. An impenetrable mystery 
still surrounds his treason. We do not know when 
or by what means he made his first overtures to Sir 
Henry Clinton. Andr6, so frank and unreserved 
otherwise, on these points maintained an inviolate 
silence. In a note in his own hand, made on his 
copy of Stedman's History, Sir Henry merely says 
that he had been ''about eighteen months"' in corre- 
spondence with Arnold. Allowing for the vagueness 
of this statement, we may probably conclude that 
Arnold's treason dated from the attack made upon 
him by the Executive Council of Pennsylvania and 
the final refusal of Congress to pass his accounts. 
But all the actors in this dark story seem to have 
agreed to tell as little as possible. Even conjecture 
is very meagre on the subject, and can only show 
us as the possible go-between, a certain lieutenant of 
the British Army who was in Philadelphia during 
part of the year 1779 and who had been suspected 
of being a spy. 

The most searching inquiries failed, likewise, to 
establish the guilt of Joshua Smith, who persisted 
in his first assertion, that he had acted in good 
faith, believing that General Arnold's mysterious 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 117 

visitor brought him information from the enemy. 
But, though Smith saved his neck, very few of his 
countrymen believed he was as innocent as he pro- 
fessed to be. 

OCTOBER 2. — Samuel Adams, Signer of the Declaration 
OF Independence, Died, 1803. 

Major Andre, British Spy, Hanged at Tappan, N. J., 1780. 

Near the Poets' Corner, in Westminster Abbey, London, 
surmounted by an imposing monument of marble to mark 
approval of his career, the remains of Major Andre, the part- 
ner in treason of the traitor, Benedict Arnold, were laid with 
solemn national ceremony, having been transferred from 
America to England for the purpose forty years after the 
spy had suffered the penalty of his crime. 

Andr6 was born in London in 1751. He joined the army 
in early manhood and saw considerable service during the 
American Revolutionary War, having been an aide-de-camp 
to the British Commander, Sir Henry Clinton, through whom 
he was promoted to the rank of Adjutant-General of the 
British Army. It was in this capacity he entered into the 
secret corespondence with the infamous traitor, with a view 
to accomplish, by treason and British gold, what they had 
been unable to do by fair combat on the field of battle. 

Through the purchase of Arnold the British expected to 
seize the American fortress and headquarters at West Point 
and capture Washington and the French generals who were 
there as guests of the traitor It seeuied, indeed, a provi- 
dential interposition that the spy and British agent who was 
carrying the proofs of the treason and the plans for capture 
should have been intercepted by the three humble patriots — 
Paulding, Williams and Van Wart — at Tarrytown. The 
proud, ambitious and guilty Arnold was susceptible to the 
bribe of Ande, but the sturdy workmen spurned the offer 
with indignation and delivered him to the nearest military 
station, after finding the proofs of his guilt upon him. 



118 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

Every effort was made by Sir Henry Clinton to save Major 
Andre. Diplomacy and threats were alike unavailing, though 
every facility was given by Washington for a fair and open 
trial by the proper military tribunal, and the British spy 
was found guilty aud hanged at Tappan, N. J., October 2, 
1780. 

The fate of Major Andr6 made a profound sensa- 
tion in England, though as little as possible was said 
about it publicly. The King made such poor amends 
as he could; he conferred a baronetcy on Andre's 
brother and erected a monument to him in West- 
minster Abbey, with an inscription in which the na- 
ture of the service in which Andr6 perished, and the 
fate which befell him, are alike concealed beneath 
a decent veil of words. It was many a long year be- 
fore the question of whether or no he came under 
the description of a spy could be approached with 
even the appearance of calmness, and many more 
before his death ceased to be called "the only blot on 
Washington's fame." His enemies had wept for 
him; his friends might be excused if they found 
it hard to be just. Many of us have stood before 
his monument in the Abbey. As one stands there 
and thinks of Andre's story, those great words, 
Duty, Glory and Honor, take a more solemn mean- 
ing, and treachery and infidelity are seen in all their 
hideous nakedness. It is said that Benedict Arnold 
was once seen standing there. ♦ * * 

John Andr6 died on the gallows — the most honor- 
able man who ever went on a dishonorable errand — 
and Benedict Arnold, escaping Sergeant Champe 
and the Marquess La Fayette, lived to waste Vir- 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 119 

ginia and burn New London. We may be sure the 
devil never showed him tJmt picture in his magic 
lantern ! 

We have forgotten him. But on the books of the 
Bank of England there is an entry in which the 
name of Benedict Arnold is set down over against 
part of the price for which he sold his soul ; it will 
help witness against him, when all the books are 
opened, and every secret thing is brought to remem- 
brance. 

The eight years' struggle came to an end at last 
and the United Provinces of North America took 
their place among the nations. 

On the famous 4th of December, when General 
Washington took that brotherly farewell of his offi- 
cers at Frances' Tavern, there were among the crowd 
of war-worn veterans who followed their general 
along Broadway down to Whitehall Ferry, and stood 
watching him, when they could not see him for their 
tears, as he waved his last farewells, until the point 
of the Battery shut him out from their sight. 



120 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 



Chap. XVII. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE 
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 

1. Origin of the Constitution : When the Revo- 
lutionary struggle commenced there were three 
forms of colonial government in force among the 
colonies, namely: the provincial or royal, the pro- 
prietary, and the charter. The provisional or royal 
government was under the control of a governor, 
who, appointed by the king, administered afifairs ac- 
cording to instructions from his royal master. The 
colonies of this class were New Hampshire, New 
York, New Jersey, Virginia, North Carolina, South 
Carolina and Georgia. 

2. The proprietary government was under the 
control of one or more proprietors, who derived 
their authority by grant and privileges conferred by 
the king. Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland 
were subject to the proprietary rule. The charter 
government secured certain political rights to the 
people by royal charter. Of this class were Massa- 
chusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. 

3. On, the 11th of June, 177G, Congress resolved 
that a committee should be appointed to prepare a 
form of confederation to be entered into by the 
colonies. On the 12th of July following this com- 
mittee, consisting of one from each State, reported 
a draft of Articles of Confederation. The report 
was considered and debated from time to time until 
the 15th of November, 1777, when, with some 
amendments, it was adopted. 



Patriotism in Washington's Time, 121 

4. These Articles of Confederation were ratified 
in 1778 by all the States except Delaware and Mary- 
land, and by Delaware in 1779; but in consequence 
of the delay on the part of Maryalnd they did not go 
into efifect until the 1st of March, 1781, the day on 
which they were signed by the delegates from that 
State. 

5. It was soon found that the Articles of Con- 
federation were not adequate to the wants of the 
government. They were deficient as regards the 
regulation of commerce, the settling of controversies 
between the States, the making of treaties with 
foreign nations, and especially so in not conferring 
the necessary power upon Congress to liquidate the 
debts incurred during the war. 

6. Consequently, a convention of delegates from 
all the States, except Khode Island, met at Philadel- 
phia in May, 1787, for the purpose of revising the 
Articles of Confederation, but it was thought best 
by a majority of the delegates to adopt an entirely 
new form of government, instead of making any at- 
tempts to amend the defective one then in existence. 
Accordingly, on the 17th of September, 1787, after 
four months' deliberation, the present Constitution, 
except some changes which were made in after years, 
was adopted by the Convention. 

7. The new Constitution was submitted to the 
people, who, in the newspapers, legislative halls and 
elsewhere discussed it with earnestness and thor- 
oughness ; the ratification of nine States being requi- 
site before it could go into efifect. It met with con- 
siderable opposition; but after it had been adopted 



122 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

by all the States, except North Carolina and Rhode 
Island, it went into operation March 4th, 1789. 

The Constitution was adopted as follows: 

By Delaware, on the 7th of December 1787 

Pennsylvania, on the 12th of December 1787 

New Jersey, on the 18th of December 1787 

Georgia, on the 2nd of January 1788 

Connecticut, on the 9th of January 1788 

Massachusetts on the 6th of February 1788 

Maryland, on the 28th of April 1788 

South Carolina, on the 2.3rd of May 1788 

New Hampshire, on the 21st of June 1788 

Virginia, on the 26th of June 1788 

New York, on the 26th of July 1788 

North Carolina, on the 21st of November . . 1789 
Rhode Island, on the 29th of May 1790 

The Constitution. 
PREAMBLE. 

We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more 
perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquil- 
lity, provide for the common defense, promote the gen- 
eral welfare and secure the blesings of liberty to our- 
selves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this 
Constitution for the United States of America. 

ARTICLE I. 

THT LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT. 

Section I. 

All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a 

Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate 

and House of Representatives. 

Section II. 
1st Clause. The House of Representatives shall be com- 
posed of members chosen every second year by the people of 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 123 

the several States, and the electors in each State shall have 
the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous 
branch of the State legislature. 

2nd Clause. No person shall be a representative who shall 
not have attained to the age of twenty-five years and been 
seven years a citizen of the United States, and who shall 
not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State in which 
he shall be chosen. 

3rd Clause. Representatives and direct taxes shall be ap- 
portioned among the several States which may be included 
within this Union, according to their respective numbers, 
which shall be determined by adding to the whole number 
of free persons, including those bound to service for a term 
of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all 
other persons.* The actual enumeration shall be made with- 
in three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the 
United States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, 
in such manner as they shall by law direct. The number of 
representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thou- 
sand, but each State shall have at least one representative; 
and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New 
Hampshire shall be entitled to choose three, Massachusetts 
eight, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, Connec- 
ticut five. New York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania 
eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten. North Caro- 
lina five. South Carolina five, and Georgia three. 

4th Clause. When vacancies happen in the representation 
from any State, the executive authority thereof shall issue 
writs of election to fill such vacancies. 

5th Class. The House of Representatives shall choose their 
speaker and other oflicers, and shall have the sole power of 
impeachment. 

Section III. 

1st Clause. The Senate of the United States shall be com- 
posed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legisla- 



* See Article XIV of the Amendments. 



124 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

ture thereof, for six years, and each Senator shall have one 
vote. 

2ud Clause. Immediately after they shall be assembled iu 
consequence of the first election, they shall be divided as 
equally as may be into three classes. The seats of the Sena- 
tors of the first class shall be vacated at the expiration of the 
second year; of the second class at the expiration of the 
fourth year, and of the third class at the expiration of the 
sixth year, so that one-third may be chosen every second 
year; and if vacancies happen by resignation or otherwise 
during the recess of the Legislature of any State, the Execu- 
tive thereof may make tmpoi-ary appointments until the next 
meeting of the Legislature, whch shall then fill such vacan- 
cies. 

3rd Clause. No person shall be a Senator who shall not 
have attained to the age of thirty years and been nine years 
a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elect- 
ed, be an inhabitant of that State for which he shall be 
chosen. 

4th Clause. The Vice-President of the United States shall 
be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they 
be equally divided. 

5th Clause. The Senate shall choose their other officers, 
and also a President pro tempore, in the absence of the 
Vice-President, or when he shall exercise the office of Presi- 
dent of the United States. 

6th Clause. The Senate shall have the sole power to 
try all impeachments. When sitting for that purpose, they 
shall be on oath or affirmation. When the President of the 
United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside and 
no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of 
two-thirds of the members present. 

7th Clause. Judgment in case of impeachment shall not 
extend further than to removal from office, and disqualifi- 
cation to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit 
under the United States, but the party convicted shall 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 125 

nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judg- 
ment, and punishment, according to law. 

Section IV. 

1st Clause. The times, places, and manner of holding 
elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be pre- 
scribed in each State by the Legislature hereof; but the 
Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regu- 
lations, except as to the places of choosing Senators. 

2nd Clause. The Congres shall assemble at least once in 
every year, and such meeting shall be on the first Monday 
in December, unless they shall by law appoint a different 
day. 

Section V. 

1st Clause. Each house shall be the judge of the elec- 
tions, returns and qualifications of its own members, and a 
majority of each shall constitute a quorum to do business; 
but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and 
may be authorized to compel the attendance of absent mem- 
bers in such manner and under such penalties as each house 
may provide. 

2nd Clause. Each house may determine the rules of its 
proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, 
and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member. 

3rd Clause. Each house shall keep a journal of its pro- 
ceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting 
such parts as may, in their judgment, require secrecy ; and 
yeas and nays of the members of either house on any ques- 
tion shall, at the desire of one-fifth of those present, be en- 
tered on the journal. 

4th Clause. Neither house, during the session of Congress, 
shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more 
than three days, nor to any other place than that in which 
the two houses shall be sitting. 

Section VI. 
1st Clause. The Senators and Representatives shall re- 
ceive a compensation for their services, to be ascertained by 



126 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

law, and paid out of the treasury of the United States. 
They shall in all cases, except treason, felony and breach 
of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attend- 
ance at the session of their respective houses, and in going 
to and returning from the same; and for any speech or 
debate in either house, they shall not be questioned in any 
other place. 

2nd Clause. No Senator or Representative shall, during 
the time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil 
office under the authority of the United States which shall 
have been created, or the emoluments whereof shall have 
been increased during such time ; and no person holding any 
office under the United States shall be a member of either 
house during his continuance in office. 

Section VII. 

1st Clause. All bills for raising revenue shall originate 
in the House of Representatives, but the Senate may pro- 
pose to concur with amendments as on other bills. 

2nd Clause. Every bill which shall have passed the 
House of Representatives and the Senate shall, before it 
become a law, be presented to the President of the United 
States ; if he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall re- 
turn it, with his objections, to that house in which it shall 
have originated, who shall enter the objections at large on 
their journal and proceed to reconsider it. If after such 
reconsideration two-thirds of that house shall agree to pass 
the bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to 
the other house, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, 
and, if approved by two-thirds of that house, it shall be- 
come a law. 

But in all such cases the votes of both houses shall be 
determined by yeas and nays, and the names of the persons 
voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the jour- 
nal of each house, respectively. If any bill shall not be re- 
turned by the President within ten days (Sunday excepted) 
after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be 
a law in like maner as if he had signed It, unless the Con- 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 127 

gress, by their adjournment, prevent its return, in which 
case it shall not be a law. 

3rd Clause. Every order, resolution or vote to which the 
concurrence of the Senate and House of Representatives 
may be necessary (except in a question of adjournment) 
shall be presented to the President of the United States; 
and before the same shall take effect shall be approved by 
him, or, being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by 
two-thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, ac- 
cording to the rules and limitations prescribed in the case 
of a bill. 

Section "VIII. 
The Congress shall have power : 

1st Clause. To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and 
excises to pay the debts and provide for the common defense 
and general welfare of the United States ; but all duties, 
imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United 
States. 

2nd Clause. To borrow money on the credit of the United 
States. 

3rd Clause. To regulate commerce with foreign nations 
and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes. 

3rd Clause. To establish a uniform rule of naturalization 
and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout 
the United States. 

5th Clause. To coin money, regulate the value thereof 
and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and 
measures. 

6th Clause. To provide for the punishment of counter- 
feiting the securities and current coin of the United States. 

7th Clause. To establish postofflces and postroads. 

8th Clause. To promote the progress of science and use- 
ful arts by securing for limited times to authors and in- 
ventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and 
discoveries. 



128 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

9th Clause. To constitute tribunals inferior to the Su- 
preme Court. 

10th Clause. To define and punish piracies and felonies 
committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law 
of nations. 

11th Clause. To declare war, grant letters of marque and 
reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and 
water. 

12th Clause. To raise and support armies ; but no ap- 
propriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term 
than two years. 

13th Clause. To provide and maintain a navy. 

14th Clause. To make rules for the government and regu- 
lation of the land and naval forces. 

15th Clause. To provide for calling forth the militia to 
execute the laws of the Union and suppress insurrections 
and repel invasions. 

16th Clause. To provide for organizing, arming and dis- 
ciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them 
as may be employed in the service of the United States, re- 
serving to the States, respectively, the appointment of the 
officers and the authority of training the militia according 
to the discipline prescribed by Congress. 

17th Clause. To exercise exclusive legislation in all 
cases whatsoever over such district (not exceeding ten 
miles square) as may, by cession of particular States and 
the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of government 
of the United States ; and to exercise like authority over all 
places purchased by the consent of the Legislature of the 
State in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, 
magazines, arsenals, dockyards and other needful buildings. 

ISth Clause. To make all laws which shall be necessary 
and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing pow- 
ers and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the 
government of the United States, or in any department or 
officer thereof. 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 129 

Section IX. 

1st Clause. The migration or importation of such per- 
sons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to 
admit shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the 
year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a tax to 
duty may be imposed on such importation not exceeding ten 
dollars for each person. 

2nd Clause. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus 
shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or 
invasion the public safety may require it. 

3rd Clause. No bill of attainder or ex post facto Taw 
shall be passed. 

4th Clause. No capitation or other direct tax shall be 
laid, unless in proportion to the census or enumeration herein 
before directed to be taken. 

5th Clause. No tax or duty shall be laid on articles ex- 
ported from any State. 

6th Clause. No preference shall be given by any regula- 
tion of commerce or revenue to the ports of one State over 
those of another ; nor shaU vessels bound to or from one 
State be obliged to enter, clear or pay duties in another. 

7th Clause. No money shall be drawn from the treasury 
but in consequence of appropriations made by law, and a 
regular statement and account of the receipts and expendi- 
tures of all public money shall be published from time to 
time. 

8th Clause. No title of nobility shall be granted by the 
United States, and no person holding any office of profit or 
trust under them shall, without the consent of the Con- 
gress, accept of any present, emolument, office or title of any 
kind whatever from any king, prince or foreign state. 

Section X. 

1st Clause. No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance 
or confederation, grant letters of marque and reprisal, coin 
money, emit bills of credit, make any thing but gold and 
silver coin a tender in payment of debts, pass any bill of 



130 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

attainder, ex post facto law or law impairing the obligation 
of contracts, or grant anj' title of nobility. 

2nd Clause. No State shall, without the consent of the 
Congress, lay any duty of tonnage, keep troops or ships of 
war in time of peace, enter into any agreement or compact 
with another State, or with a foreign power, or engage in 
war, unless actually invaded or in such imminent dnager as 
will not admit of delay. 

ARTICLE II. 
THE EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT. 

SECTION I. 

1st Clause. The executive power shall be vested in a 
President of the United States of America. He shall hold 
his office during the term of four years, and, together with 
the Vice-President, chosen for the same term, be elected as 
follows : 

2ud Clause. Each State shall appoint, in such manner as 
the Legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors 
equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives 
to which the State may be entitled in the Congress ; but no 
Senator or Representative, or person holding an office of 
trust or profit under the United States shall be appointed 
an elector. 

The Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution. 
1st Clause. The electors shall' meet in their respective 
States and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, 
one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the 
same State with themselves; they shall name in their bal- 
lots the person voted for as President, and in distinct bal- 
lots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall 
make distinct lists of all persons voted for as Vice-President 
and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall 
sign and certify and transmit sealed to the seat of the gov- 
ernment of the United States, directed to the President of 
the Senate; the President of the Senate shall, in presence of 
the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the cer- 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 131 

tiflcates and the votes shall then be counted ; the person 
having the greatest number of votes for President shall be 
the President, if such number be a majority of the whole 
number of electors appointed ; and if no person have such 
majority, then from the persons having the highest num- 
bers, not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as 
President, the House of Representatives shall choose imme- 
diately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the Presi- 
dent, the votes shall be taken by States, the representation 
from each State having one vote ; a quorum for this purpose 
shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of 
the St^ates, and a majority of all the State shall be necessary 
to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not 
choose a President whenever the right of choice shall de- 
volve upon them, before the fourth day of March next fol- 
lowing, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in 
the case of the death or other constitutional disability of 
the President. 

2nd Clause. The persons having the greatest number of 
votes as Vice-President shall be the Vice-President, if such 
number be a majority of the whole number of electors ap' 
pointed ; and if no person have a majority, then from the 
two highest numbers on the list the Senate shall choose the 
Vice-President ; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of 
two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority 
of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. 

3rd Clause. But no person constitutionally ineligible to 
the ofBce of President shall be eligible to that of Vice- 
President of the United States. 

4th Clause. The Congress may determine the time of 
choosing the electors, and the day on which they shall give 
their votes, which day shall be the same throughout the 
United States. 

5th Clause. No person except a natural-born citizen, or a 
citizen of the United States at the time of the adoption 
of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of Presi- 
dent; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who 



132 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

shall not have attained to the age of thirty-flve years and 
been fourteen years a resident within the United States. 

6th Clause. In case of the remvoal of the President from 
oflBce or of his death, resignation or inability to discharge 
the powers and duties of the said office, the same shall de- 
volve on the Vice-President, and the Congress may by law 
provide for the case of removal, death, resignation or in- 
ability, both of the President and Vice-President, declaring 
what officer shall then act as President, and such officer 
shall act accordingly until the disability be removed or a 
President shall be elected. 

7th Clause. The President shall, at stated times, re- 
ceive for his services a compensation which shall neither be 
increased nor diminished during the period for which he 
shall have been electetl, and he shall not receive within that 
period any other emolument from the United States, or any 
of them. 

8th Clause. Before he enter ou the execution of his 
office he shall take the following oath or affirmation : 

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faith- 
fully execute the office of President of the United 
States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, 
protect and defend the Constitution of the United 
States." 

Section II. 
1st Clause. The President shall be commander-in-chief 
of the army and navy of the United States, and of the 
militia of the several States, when called into the actual 
service of the United States; he may require the opinion, 
in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive 
departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their 
re-spective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves 
and pardons for offenses against the United States, except 
in cases of impeachment. 

2nd Clause. He shall have power by and with the ad- 
vice and consent of the Senate to make treaties, provided 
two-thirds of the Senators present concur ; and he shall 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 133 

nominate and, by and with the advice and consent of the 
Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers 
and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court and all other 
officers of the United States whose appointments are not 
herein otherwise provided for and which shall be established 
by law ; but the Congress may by law vest the appointment 
of such inferior officers as they think proper in the Presi- 
dent alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of depart- 
ments. 

3rd Clause. The President shall have power to fill up 
all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the 
Senate by granting commissions, which shall expire at the 
end of their next session. 

Section III. 

He shall from time to time give the Congress informa- 
tion of the State of the Union and recommend to their con- 
sideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and 
expedient ; he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene 
both houses, or either of them, and in case of disagreement 
between them with respect to the time of adjournment, he 
may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper ; 
he shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers ; he 
shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed and 
shall commission all the officers of the United States. 

Section IV. 
The President, Vice-President and all civil officers of the 
United States shall be removed from office on impeachment 
for and conviction for treason, bribery or other high crimes 
and misdemeanors. 

ARTICLE III. 

THE JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT. 

Section I. 

The judicial power of the United States shall be vested 
in one Supreme Court and in such inferior courts as the 
Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The 
judges, both of the Supreme and inferior courts, shall hold 



134 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

their offices during good behavior, and shall at stated times 
receive for their services a compensation, which shall not 
be diminished during their continuance In office. 

Section II. 

1st Clause. The judicial power shall extend to all cases, 
in law tind equitj', arising under this Constitution, t"he laws 
of the United States and treaties made, or which shall be 
made, under their authority ; to all cases of admiralty and 
maritime jurisdiction ; to controversies to which the United 
States shall be a party ; to controversies between two or 
more States ; between a State and citizens of another State ; 
between citizens of different States ; between citizens of the 
same State claiming lauds under grants of different States, 
and between a State, or the citizens thereof, and foreign 
states, citizens or subjects. 

2nd Clause. In all cases affecting ambassadors, other 
public ministers and consuls, and those in which a State 
shall be a party, the Supreme Court shall have original 
jurisdiction. In all the other cases befoi-e mentioned the 
Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to 
law and fact, with such exceptions and under such regula- 
tions as the Congress shall make. 

3rd Clause. The trial of all crimes, except in cases of 
impeachment, shall be by jury ; and such trial shall be held 
in the State where the said crimes shall have been commit- 
ted ; but when not committed within any State the trial 
shall be at such place or places as the Congress may by law 
have directed. 

Section III. 

1st Clause. Treason against the United States shall con- 
sist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to 
their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person 
shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two 
witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open 
court. 

2nd Clause. The Congress shall have power to declare 
the punishment of treason, but no attainder of treason shall 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 135 

work corruption of blood or forfeiture except during the 
life of tlie person attainted. 

ARTICLE IV. 

MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS. 

Section I. 

Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the 

public acts, records and judicial proceedings of every other 

State. And the Congress may by general laws prescribe the 

manner on which such acts, records and proceedings shall 

be proved and the effect thereof. 

Section II. 
1st Clause. The citizens of each State shall be entitled 
to all privileges and immunities of citizens of the several 
States. 

2nd Clause. A person charged in any State with treason, 
felony or other crime, who shall flee from justice and be 
found in another State, shall on demand of the executive 
authority of the State from which he fled be delivered up, 
to be removed to the State having jurisdiction of the crime. 

3rd Clause. No person held to service or labor in one 
State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, 
in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be dis- 
charged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered 
up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may 
be due. 

1st Clause. New States may be admitted by the Congress 
into this Union ; but no new State shall be formed or 
erected within the jurisdiction of any other State ; nor any 
State be formed by tue junction of two or more States or 
parts of States, without the consent of the Legislatures of 
the States concerned as well as of the Congress. 

2nd Clause. The Congress shall have power to dispose of 
and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the 
territory or other property belonging to the United States ; 
and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to 



136 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any par- 
ticular State. 

Section IV. 

The United States shall guarantee to every State in this 
Union a republican form of government, and shall protect 
each of them against invasion ; and on application of the 
Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature 
cannot be convened), against domestic violence. 

Article V. 

The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both houses shall 
deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Con- 
stitution, or, on the application of the Legislatures of two- 
thirds of the several States, shall call a convention for pro- 
posing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to 
all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when 
ratified by the Legislatures of three-fourths of the several 
States, or by conventions in three-fourths thereof, as the 
one or the other made of ratification may be proposed by 
the Congress ; provided that no amendment which may be 
made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and 
eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses 
in the ninth section of first article; and that no State, with- 
out its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in 
the Senate. 

ARTICLE VI. 

1st Clause. All debts contracted and engagements en- 
tered into before the adoption of this Constitution shall be 
as valid against the United States under this Constitution 
as under the Confederation. 

2nd Clause. This Constitution and the laws of the United 
States, which shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all 
treaties made or which shall be made under the authority 
of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land ; 
and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any- 
thing in the Constitution or laws of any State to the con- 
trary notwithstanding. 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 137 

3rd Clause. The Senators and Representatives before 
mentioned, and the members of the several State Legisla- 
tures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the 
United States and of the several States, shall be bound 
by oath or affirmation to support this Constitution ; but no 
religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any 
office or public trust under the United States. 

ARTICLE VII. 

The ratification of the conventions of nine States shall 
be sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution be- 
tween the States so ratifying the same. 

AMENDMENTS 

Proposed by Congress and Ratified by the Legislature of the 

Several States, Pursuant to the Fifth Article of 

the Original Constitution. 

Aeticle I. 
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment 
of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or 
abridging the freedom of speech or of the press, or the right 
of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the 
government for a redress of grievances. 

Article II. 
A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of 
a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms 
shall not be infringed. 

Abticle III. 
No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any 
house without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war 
but in a manner to be prescribed by law. 

Article IV. 

The right of the people to go secure in their persons, 

houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches 

and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall 

issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirma- 



138 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

tion, and particularly describing the place to be searched 
and the persons or things to be seized. 

Article V. 

No person shall be held to answer for a capital or other- 
wise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment 
of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval 
forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of 
war or public danger ; nor shall any person be subject for 
the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb ; 
nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness 
against himself nor be deprived of life or liberty or property 
without due process of law ; nor shall private property be 
taken for public use without just compensation. 

Abticle VI. 

In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the 
right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of 
the State and district wherein the crime shall have been 
committed, which district shall have been previously ascer- 
tained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause 
of the accusation ; to be confronted with the witnesses 
against him ; to have compulsory process for obtaining wit- 
nesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel 
for his defense. 

Abticle VII. 

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines 
Imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflcted. 

Article IX. 

The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights 
shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained 
by the people. 

Article X. 

The powers not delegated to the United States by the 
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved 
to the States, respectively, or to the people. 



pATRi6l:igM IN Washington's Time. 139 

Article XI. 

The judicial power of the United States shall not be con- 
strued to any suit, in law or equity, commenced or prose- 
cuted against one of the United States by citizens of an- 
other State, or by citizens or subjects of any foreign State. 

Abticle XIII.* 

Section I. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, ex- 
cept as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall 
have been convicted, shall exist within the United States, or 
any place subject to their jurisdiction. 

Section II. Congress shall have power to enforce this ar- 
ticle by appropriate legislation. 

Aeticle XIV. 
Section I. All persons born or naturalized in the United 
States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens 
of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. 
No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge 
the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States ; 
nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty or 
property without due process of law, nor deny any person 
within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. 

Section II. Representatives shall be apportioned among 
the several States according to their respective numbers, 
counting the whole number of persons in each State, ex- 
cluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at 
any election for the choice of electors for President and 
Vice-President of the United States, repreesntatives in Con- 
gress, the executive and judicial officers of a State, or the 
members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the 
male inhabitants of such State, being 21 years of age, and 
citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except 
for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of 
representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion 
which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the 



♦For the 12th amendment see page 10. 



140 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in 
such State. 

Section III. No person shall be a Senator or Repre- 
sentative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice- 
President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the 
United States, or as a member of any state Legislature, 
or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to sup- 
port the Constitution of the United States, shall have en- 
gaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or 
given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress 
may, by a vote of two-thirds of each house, remove such 
disability. 

Section IV. The validity of the public debt of the 
United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred 
for payment of pensions and bounties for services in sup- 
pressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. 
But neither the United States nor any State shall assume 
or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrec- 
tion or rebellion against the United States, or any claim 
for the loss or emancipation of any slave ; but all such 
debts, obligations, and claims shall be held illegal and void. 

Section V. The Congress shall have power to enforce, 
by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article. 

Aeticle XV. 
Section I. The right of citizens of the United States to 
vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, 
or by any State, on account of race, color, or previous 
condition of servitude. 

Section II. The Congress shall have iwwer to enforce 
this article by appropriate legislature. 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 141 



AMERICA. 

My country, 'tis of thee, 
Sweet land of liberty, 

Of thee I sing; 
Land where my fathers died. 
Land of the pilgrim's pride, 
From every mountain-side 

Let freedom ring. 

My native country, thee — 
Thy name 1 love; 

I love thy rocks and rills. 

Thy woods and templed hills ; 

My heart with rapture thrills 
Like that above. 

Let music swell the breeze, 
And ring from all the trees 

Sweet freedom's song : 
Let mortal tongues awake; 
Let all that breathe partake ; 
Let rocks thy silence break, — 

The sound prolong. 

Our fathers' God to thee, 
Author of liberty. 

To thee we sing; 
Long may our land be bright 
With freedom's holy light ; 
Protect us by thy might. 

Great God our King, 



142 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 




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Patriotism in Washington's Time. 143 



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144 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 



JEFFERSON'S TEN RULES. 

Never put off until tomorrow what you can do 
today. 

Never trouble another for what you can do for 
yourself. 

Never spend money before you have earned it. 

Never buy what you don't want because it is 
cheap. 

Pride costs more than hunger, thirst and cold. 

We seldom repent of having eaten too little. 

Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly. 

How much pain the evils have cost us that have 
never happened. 

Take things always by the smooth handle. 

When angry count ten before you speak; if very 
angry, count one hundred. 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 145 



WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS. 

(On his declining a second re-election as President 
of the United States.) 

Friends and Fellow-Citizens : 

The period for a new election of a citizen to ad- 
minister the executive government of the United 
States being not far distant, and the time actually 
arrived when your thoughts must be employed in 
designating the person who is to be clothed with 
that important trust, it appears to me proper, espe- 
cially as it may conduce to a more distinct expres- 
sion of the public voice, that I should now apprise 
you of the resolution I have formed, to decline being 
considered among the number of those out of whom 
a choice is to be made. 

I beg you at the same time to do me the justice 
to be assured that this resolution has not been taken 
without a strict regard to all the considerations ap- 
pertaining to the relation which binds a dutiful citi- 
zen to his country; and that in withdrawing the 
tender of service which silence in my situation might 
imply, I am influenced by no diminution of zeal for 
your future interest; no deficiency of grateful re- 
spect for your past kindness, but am supported by 
a full conviction that the step is compatible with 
both. 

The acceptance of and continuance hitherto in 
the office to which your suffrages have twice called 
me have been a uniform sacrifice of inclination to 

10 



146 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

the opinion of duty and to a deference for what ap- 
peared to be your desire. I constantly hoped that it 
would have been much earlier in my power, consist- 
ently with motives which I was not at liberty to dis- 
regard, to return to that retirement from which I 
had been reluctantly drawn. The strength of my 
inclination to do this previous to the election had 
even led to the preparation of an address to declare 
it to you ; but mature reflection on the then per- 
plexed and critical posture of our affairs with for- 
eign nations and unanimous advice of persons en- 
titled to my confidence, impelled me to abandon the 
idea. 

I rejoice that the state of your concerns, external 
as well as internal, no longer renders the pursuit 
of inclination incompatible with the sentiment of 
duty or propriety, and am persuaded, whatever par- 
tiality may be retained for my services, that in the 
present circumstances of our country you will not 
disapprove of my determination to retire. 

The impressions with which I first undertook the 
arduous trust were explained on the proper occasion. 
In the discharge of this trust I will only say that 1 
have, with good intentions, contributed toward the 
organization and administration of the government 
the best exertions of which a very fallible judgment 
was capable. Not unconscious, in the outset, of ihe 
inferiority for any qualifications, experience in my 
own eyes, perhaps still more in the eyes of others, 
has strengthened the motives to diffidence myself; 
and every day the increasing weight of years ad- 
monishes me more and more that the shade of retire- 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 147 

ment is as necessary to me as it will be welcome. 
Satisfied that if any circumstances have given pe- 
culiar value to my services, they were temporary, I 
have the consolation to believe that, while choice 
and prudence invite me to quit the political scene, 
patriotism does not forbid it. 

In looking forward to the moment which is in- 
tended to terminate the career of my public life, my 
feelings do not permit me to suspend the deep ac- 
knowledgment of that debt of gratitude which I owe 
to my beloved country for the many honors it has 
conferred upon me; still more for the steadfast 
confidence with which it has supported me, and for 
the opportunities I have thence enjoyed of mani- 
festing my inviolable attachment by services faith- 
ful and persevering, though in usefulness unequal to 
my zeal. If benefits have resulted to our country 
from these services, let it always be remembered to 
your praise, and as an instructive example in our 
annals that, under circumstances in which the pas- 
sions, agitated in every direction, were liable to 
mislead, amidst appearances sometimes dubious — 
vicissitudes of fortune often discouraging — in situa- 
tions in which not unfrequently want of success has 
countenanced the spirit of criticism, the constantcy 
of your support was the essential prop of the efforts 
and a guaranty of the plans by which they were ef- 
fected. Profoundly penetrated with this idea, I 
shall carry it with me to my grave as a strong in- 
citement to unceasing wishes that Heaven may con- 
tinue to you the choicest tokens of its beneficence; 
that your union and brotherly attection may be per- 



148 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

petual; that the free constitution which is the work 
of your hands may be sacredly maintained; that its 
administration in every department may be stamped 
with wisdom and virtue ; that, in fine, the happiness 
of the people of these States, under the auspices of 
liberty, may be made complete by so careful a pres- 
ervation and so prudent a use of this blessing as 
will acquire to them the glory of recommending it 
to the applause, the affection and adoption of every 
nation which is yet a stranger to it. 

Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But a solicitude 
for your welfare, which cannot end but with ray life, 
and th€ apprehension of danger, natural to the so- 
licitude, urge me, on an occasion like the present, 
to offer to your solemn contemplation and to recom- 
mend to your frequent review, some sentiments 
which are the result of much reflection, of no incon- 
siderable observation, and which appear to me all- 
important to the permanency of your felicity as a 
people. These will be offered to you with the more 
freedom, as you can only see in them the disinter- 
ested warnings of a parting friend, who can possi- 
bly have no personal motive to bias his counsel. 
Nor can I forget, as an encouragement to it, your 
indulgent reception of my sentiments on a former 
and not dissimilar occasion. 

Interwoven as is the life of liberty with every 
ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of mine 
is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment. 

The unity of government which constitutes you 
one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so, 
for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real 



Patriotism in Washington's Time, 149 

independence, the support of your tranquillity at 
home, your peace abroad, of your safety, of your 
prosperity, of that very liberty which you so highly 
prize. But as it is easy to foresee that from dif- 
ferent causes and from different quarters, much 
pains will be taken, many artifices employed, to 
weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth; 
as this is the point in your political fortress against 
which the batteries of internal and external enemies 
will be most constantly and actively (though often 
covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite 
moment that you should properly estimate the im- 
mense value of your national Union, to your collec- 
tive and individual happiness ; that you should cher- 
ish a cordial, habitual and immovable attachment 
to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak 
of it as of the paladium of your political safety and 
prosperity; watching for its preservation with jeal- 
ous anxiety, discountenancing whatever may sug- 
gest even a suspicion that it can in any event be 
abandoned, and indignantly frowning upon the first 
dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion 
of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the 
sacred ties which now link together the various 
parts. 

For this you have every inducement of sympathy 
and interest. Citizens by birth or choice of a com- 
mon country, that country has a right to concen- 
trate your affections. The name of American, which 
belongs to you in your national capacity, must al- 
ways exalt the just pride of patriotism more than 
any appellation derived from local discriminations. 



150 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

With slight shades of difference, you have the same 
religion, manners, habits and political principles. 
You have in a common cause fought and triumphed 
together; the Independence and Liberty you possess 
are the work of joint councils and joint efforts, of 
common dangers, sufferings and successes. 

But these considerations, however powerfully they 
may address themselves to your sensibility, are 
greatly outweighed by those which apply more im- 
mediately to your interest. Here every portion of 
our country finds the most commanding motives for 
carefully guarding and preserving the union of the 
whole. 

The North, in an unrestrained intercourse with 
the South, protected by the equal laws of common 
government, finds in the productions of the latter 
great additional resources of maritime and commer- 
cial enterprise and precious materials of manufac- 
turing industry. The South, in the same inter- 
course, benefiting by the agency of the North, sees 
its agriculture grow and its commerce expand. 
Turning partly into its own channels the seamen 
of the North, it finds its particular navigation invig- 
orated; and while its contributes, in different ways, 
to nourish and increase the general mass of the 
national navigation, it looks forward to the protec- 
tion of maritime strength, to which itself is unequal- 
ly adapted. The East, in a like intercourse with 
the West, already finds, and in the progressive im- 
provement of interior communications by land and 
water will more and more find a valuable vent for 
the commodities which it brings from abroad or 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 151 

manufactures at home. The West derives from the 
East supplies requisite to its growth and comfort, 
and what is perhaps of still greater consequence, it 
must of necessity owe the secure enjoyment of in- 
dispensable outlets for its own productions to the 
weight, influence and the future maritime strength 
of the Atlantic side of the Union, directed by an in- 
dissoluble community of interest as one nation. Any 
other tenure by which the West can hold this essen- 
tial advantage, whether derived from its own sepa- 
rate strength or from an apostate and unnatural 
connection with any foreign power, must be intrin- 
sically precarious. 

While then every part of our country thus feels 
the immediate and particular interest in Union, all 
the parts combined cannot fail to find in the united 
mass of means and efforts greater strength, greater 
resource, proportionable greater security from in- 
ternal danger, a less frequent interruption of their 
peace by foreign nations, and what is of inestimable 
value, they must derive from Union an exemption 
from those broils and wars between themselves 
which so frequently afflict neighboring countries not 
tied together by the same government, which their 
own rivalship alone would be sufficient to produce, 
but which opposite foreign alliances, attachments 
and intrigues would stimulate and embitter. Hence 
likewise they will avoid the necessity of those over- 
grown military establishments which, under any 
form of government, are inauspicious to liberty and 
which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to 
republican liberty. In this sense it is that your 



152 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

Union ought to be considered, as the main prop of 
your liberty, and that the life of the one ought to 
endear to you the preservation of the other. 

These considerations speak a persuasive language 
to every reflecting and virtuous mind and exhibit 
the continuance of the Union as a primary object 
of patriotic desire. Is there a doubt whether a 
common government can embrace so large a sphere? 
Let experience solve it. To listen to mere specula- 
tion in such a case were criminal. We are author- 
ized to hope that a proper organization of the whole, 
with the auxiliary agency of governments for the 
respective subdivisions, will afford a happy issue to 
the experiment. It is well worth a fair and full 
experiment. With such powerful and obvious mo- 
tives to Union, affecting all parts of our country, 
while experience shall not have demonstrated its im- 
practicability, there will always be reason to dis- 
trust the patriotism of those who in any quarter 
may endeavor to weaken its bands. 

In contemplating the causes w^hich may disturb 
our Union, it occurs as matter of serious concern 
that any ground should have been furnished for 
characterizing parties by geographical discrimina- 
tions — Northern and Southern, Atlantic and East- 
ern — whence designing men may endeavor to excite 
a belief that there is a real differece of local inter- 
ests and views. One of the expedients of party to 
acquire influence within particular districts is to 
misrepresent the opinions and aims of other dis- 
tricts. You cannot shield yourselves too much 
against the jealousies and heartburnings which 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 153 

spring from these misrepresentations; they tend to 
render alien to each other those who ought to be 
bound together by fraternal affection. The inhabi- 
tants of our Western country have lately had a use- 
ful lesson on this head ; they have seen, in the nego- 
tiation by the Executive and in the unanimous 
ratification by the Senate of the Treaty with Spain, 
and the universal satisfaction of the event through- 
out the United States, a decisive proof of how un- 
founded were the suspicions propagated among them 
of a policy in the general government and in the 
Atlantic States, unfriendly to their interests in re- 
gard to the Mississippi; they have been witnesses to 
the formation of two treaties, that with Great Brit- 
ain and that with Spain, which secure to them 
everything they could desire in respect to our for- 
eign relations, toward confirming their prosperity. 
Will it not be their wisdom to rely for the preser- 
vation of these advantages on the Union by which 
thev were procured? Will they not henceforth be 
deaf to those advisers, if such there are, who would 
sever them from their brethren and connect them 
with aliens? 

To the efficacy and permanency of your Union a 
government for the whole is indispensable. No al- 
liances, however strict, between the parts can be an 
adequate substitute; they must inevitably experi- 
ence the infractions and interruptions which all al- 
liances in all times have experienced. Sensible of 
this momentous truth, you have improved your first 
essay, by the adoption of a Constitution of govern- 
ment better calculated than your former for an in- 



154 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

timate Union, and for the efficacious management 
of your common concerns. This government, the 
offspring of your own choice, uninfluenced and un- 
awed, adopted upon full investigation and mature 
deliberation, completely free in its principles, in 
the distribution of its powers, uniting security with 
energy and contauiug within itself a provision for 
its own amendment, has a just claim to your confi- 
dence and your support. Kespect for its authority, 
compliance with its laws, acquiescence in its meas- 
ures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental max- 
ims of true liberty. The basis of our political sys- 
tems is the right of the people to make and to alter 
their constitutions of government. But the Con- 
stitution which at any time exists, until changed by 
an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is 
sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the 
power and the right of the people to establish gov- 
ernment presupposes the duty of every individual to 
obey the established government. 

All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all 
combinations and associations, under whatever 
plausible character, with the real design to direct, 
control, counteract or awe the regular deliberation 
and action of the constituted authorities, are de- 
structive of this fundamental principle and of fatal 
tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it 
an artificial and extraordinary force, to put in the 
place of the delegated will of the nation the will of 
a party, often a small but artful and enterprising 
minority of the community, and, according to the 
alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 155 

public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted 
and inconsistent and wholesome plans digested by 
common councils and modified by mutual interests. 

However combinations or associations of the above 
description may now and then answer popular ends, 
they are likely, in the course of time and things, 
to become potent engines by which cunning, ambi- 
tious and unprincipled men will be enabled to sub- 
vert the power of the people and to usurp for them- 
selves the reins of government, destroying after- 
ward the very engines which have lifted them to un- 
just dominion. 

Toward the preservation of your government and 
the permanency of your present happy state, it is 
requisite not only that you steadily discountenance 
irregular oppositions to its acknowledged authority, 
but also that you resist with care the spirit of inno- 
vation upon its principles, however specious the 
pretexts. One method of assault may be to effect 
in the form of the Constitution alterations which 
will impair the energy of the system and thus to 
undermine what canot be directly overthrown. In 
all the changes to which you may be invited, remem- 
ber that time and habit are at least as necessary to 
fix the true character of governments as of other 
human institutions; that experience is the surest 
standard by which to test the real tendency of the 
existing constitution of a country; that facility in 
changes upon the credit of mere hypothesis and 
opinion exposes to perpetaul change from the end- 
less variety of hypothesis and opinion; and remem- 
ber, especially, that for the efficient management of 



156 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

your common interests, in a country so extensive as 
ours, a government of as much vigor as is consistent 
with the perfect security of liberty, is indispensable. 
Liberty itself v^ill find in such a government, with 
powers properly distributed and adjusted, its surest 
guardian. It is, indeed, little else than a name 
where the government is too feeble to withstand the 
enterprises of faction, to confine each member of the 
society within the limits prescribed by the laws, and 
to maintain all in the secure and tranquil enjoyment 
of the rights of person and property. 

I have already intimated to you the danger of 
parties in the State, with particular reference to the 
founding of them on geographical discriminations. 
Let me now take a more comprehensive view and 
warn you in the most solemn manner against the 
baneful effects of the spirit of party, generally. 

This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our 
nature, having its root in the strongest passions of 
the human mind. It exists under different shapes 
in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled or 
repressed; but in those of the popular form it is 
seen in greatest rankness, and it is truly their worst 
enemy. 

The alternate domination of one faction over an- 
other, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural 
to party dissension, which in different ages and 
countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormi- 
ties, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads 
at length to a more formal and permanent despot- 
ism. The disorders and miseries which result grad- 
ually incline the minds of men to seek security and 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 157 

repose in the absolute power of an individual, and 
sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, 
more able or more fortunate than his competitors, 
turns this disposition to the purposes of his own 
elevation, on the ruins of public liberty. 

Without looking forward to an extremity of this 
kind (which, nevertheless, ought not to be entirely 
out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs 
of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the 
interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and 
restrain it. 

It serves always to distract the public councils 
and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates 
the community with ill-founded jealousies and false 
alarms; kindles the animosity of one part against, 
another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. 
It opens the door to foreign influence and corrup- 
tion, which find a facilitated access to the govern- 
ment itself through the channels of party passions. 
Thus the policy and the will of one country are sub- 
jected to the policy and will of another. There is 
an opinion that parties in free countries are useful 
checks upon the administration of government and 
serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This with- 
in certain limits is probably true, and in govern- 
ments of a monarchical cast patriotism may look 
with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit 
of party. But in those of the popular character, in 
governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be 
encouraged. From their natural tendency it is cer- 
tain there will always be enough of that spirit for 
every salutary purpose. And there being constant 



158 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

danger of excess, the effort ought to be, by force of 
public opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. A fire 
not to be quenched, it demands uniform vigilance 
to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of 
warming, it should consume. 

It is important, likewise, that the habits of think- 
ing, in a free country, should inspire caution in those 
intrusted with its administration, to confine them- 
selves within their respective constitutional spheres, 
avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one de- 
partment to encroach upon another. The spirit of 
encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all 
departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the 
form of government, a real despotism. A just esti- 
mate of that love of power and proneness to abuse 
it, which predominates in the human heart, is suflS- 
cient to satisfy us of the truth of this position. The 
necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of po- 
litical power, by dividing and distributing it into 
different depositories and constituting each the guar- 
dian of the public weal against invasions by the 
others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and 
modern — some of them in our country and under 
our own eyes. To preserve them must be as neces- 
sary as to institute them. If, in the opinion of the 
I)eople, the distribution or modification of the con- 
stitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it 
be corrected by an amendment in the way which the 
Constitution designates. But let there be no change 
by usurpation ; for though this, in one instance, may 
be the instrument of good, it is the customary weap- 
on by which free governments are destroyed. The 



Patriotism in Washington's Time, 159 

precedent must always greatly overbalance in per- 
manent evil any partial or transient benefit which 
the use can at any time yield. 

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to 
political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indis- 
pensable supports. In vain would that man claim 
the tributes of Patriotism who should labor to sub- 
vert these great pillars of human happiness, these 
firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The 
mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought 
to respect and to cherish them. A volume could 
not trace all their connections with private and pub- 
lic felicity. Let it simply be asked, where is the 
security for property, for reputation, for life, if the 
sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which 
are the instruments of investigation in courts of 
justice? And let us with caution indulge the sup- 
position that morality can be maintained without 
religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influ- 
ence of refined education on minds of peculiar struc- 
ture, reason and experience both forbid us to ex- 
pect that national morality can prevail in exclu- 
sion of religious principle. 

It is substantially true, that virtue or morality is 
a necessary spring of popular government. The rule 
indeed extends with more or less force to every 
species of free government. Who that is a sincere 
friend to it, can look with indifference upon attempts 
to shake the foundation of the fabric? 

Promote then, as an object of primary importance, 
institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. 
In proportion as the structure of a government gives 



160 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

force to public opinion, it is essential that public 
opinion should be enlightened. 

As a very important source of strength and se- 
curity, cherish public credit. One method of pre- 
serving it, is to use it as sparingly as possible, 
avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace; 
but remember also that timely disbursements to pre- 
pare for danger frequently prevent much greater 
disbursements to repel it, avoiding likewise the ac- 
cumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions 
of expense, but by vigorous exertions in time of 
peace to discharge the debts which unavoidable wars 
may have occasioned, not ungerenously throwing 
upon posterity the burden which we ourselves ought 
to bear. The execution of these maxims belongs to 
your representatives, but it is necessary that public 
opinion should co-operate. To facilitate to them 
the performance of their duty, it is essential that 
you should practically bear in mind that toward 
the payment of debts there must be revenue ; that to 
have revenue there must be taxes ; that no taxes can 
be devised which are not more or less inconvenient 
and unpleasant; that the intrinsic embarrassment 
inseparable from the selection of the proper objects 
(which is always a choice of difficulties) ought to be 
a decisive motive for a candid construction of the 
conduct of the government in making it and for a 
spirit of acquiescence in the measures for obtaining 
revenue which the public exigencies may at any time 
dictate. 

Observe good faith and justice toward the nations, 
cultivate peace and harmony with all; religion and 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 1(51 

morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be that 
good policy does not equally enjoin it? It will be 
worthy of a free, enlightened and at no distant pe- 
riod a great nation, to give to mankind the mag- 
nanimous and too novel example of a people always 
guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. Who 
can doubt but in the course of time and things the 
fruits of such a plan would richly repay any tempo- 
rary advantage which might be lost by a steady ad- 
herence to it? Can it be that Providence has not 
connected the permanent felicit of a nation with its 
virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended 
by every sentiment which ennobles human nature. 
Alas! is it rendered impossible by its vices? 

In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more 
essential than that permanent, inveterate antipa- 
thies against particular nations and passionate at- 
tachments for others, should be excluded; and that 
in place of them just and amicable feelings toward 
all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges 
towards another an habitual hatred or an habitual 
fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a slave 
to its animosity or to its affection, either of which 
is suflScient to lead it astray from its duty and its 
interest. Antipathy in one nation against another 
disposes each more readily to offer insult and injury, 
to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage and to be 
haughty and intractable when accidental or trifling 
occasions of dispute occur. Hence frequent col- 
lisions, obstinate, envenomed and bloody contests. 
The nation prompted by ill will and resentment 
sometimes impels to war the government, contrary 

11 



162 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

to tlie best calculations of policy. The government 
sometimes participates in the national propensity 
and adopts through passion what reason would 
reject; at other times it makes the animosity of the 
nation subservient to projects of hostility instigated 
by pride, ambition and other sinister and pernicious 
motives. The peace often, sometimes perhaps the 
liberty, of nations has been the victim. 

So, likewise, a passionate attachment of one na- 
tion for another produces a variety of evils. Sym- 
pathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illu- 
sion of an imaginary common interest in cases where 
no real common interest exists, and infusing into 
one the enmities of the other, betrays the former 
into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the 
latter, without adequate inducement or justifica- 
tion. It leads also to concessions to the favorite 
nation of privileges denied to others, which is apt 
doubly to injure the nation making the concessions, 
by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have 
been retained, and by exciting jealousy, ill will and 
a disposition to retaliate in the parties from whom 
equal privileges are withheld. And it gives to am- 
bitious, corrupted or deluded citizens (who devote 
themselves to the favorite nation) facility to betray 
or sacrifice the interests of their own country with- 
out odium, sometimes even with popularity; gild- 
ing with the appearance of a virtuous sense of obli- 
gation a commendable deference for public opinion, 
or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or fool- 
ish compliances of ambition, corruption or infatua- 
tion. 



Patriotism in Washington's Time, 1(58 

As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable 
ways, such attacliments are particularly alarming 
to the truly enlightened and independent patriot. 
How many opportunities do they afford to tamper 
with domestic factions, to practice the arts of se- 
dition, to mislead public opinion, to influence or 
awe the public councils! Such an attachment of a 
small or weak toward a great and powerful nation 
dooms the former to be the satellite of the latter. 
Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I 
conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens) the jeal- 
ousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake; 
since history and experience prove that foreign in- 
fluence is one of the most baneful foes of republican 
government. But that jealousy, to be useful, must 
be impartial, else it becomes the instrument of the 
very influence to be avoided, instead of a defense 
against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign na- 
tion and excessive dislike of another cause those 
whom they actuate to see danger only on one side 
and serve to veil and even second the arts of influ- 
ence on the other. Real patriots, who may resist 
the intrigues of the favorite, are liable to become 
suspected and odious, while its tools and dupes 
usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to 
surrender their interest. 

The great rule of conduct for us in regard to for- 
eign nations is, in extending our commercial rela- 
tions, to have with them as little political connec- 
tion as possible. So far as we have already formed 
engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good 
faith. Here let us stop. 



164 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

Europe has a set of primary interests which, to 
us, have none, or a very remote relation. Hence she 
must be engaged in fretjuent controversies, the causes 
of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. 
Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to impli- 
cate ourselves by artificial ties in the ordinary vicis- 
situdes of her politics or the ordinary combinations 
and collisions of her friendships or enmities. 

Our detached and distant situation invites and 
enables us to pursue a different course. If we re- 
main one people, under an efficient government, the 
period is not far off when we may defy material 
injury from external annoyance; when we may take 
such an attitude as will cause the neutrality we 
may at any time resolve upon to be scrupulously 
respected; when belligerent nations, under the im- 
possibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not 
lightly hazard the giving us of provocation, when we 
may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by 
justice, shall counsel. 

Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situa- 
tion? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign 
ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with 
that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and 
prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rival- 
ship, interest, humor or caprice? 

It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent 
alliances with any portion of the foreign world, so 
far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it; for 
let me not be understood as capable of patronizing 
infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the 
maxim no less applicable to public than to private 



Patriotism in Washington's Time, 165 

affairs, that honesty is always the best policy. I re- 
peat it, therefore, let those engagements be observed 
in their genuine sense. But, in my opinion, it is 
unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them. 

Taking care always to keep ourselves, by suitable 
establishments, on a respectable defensive posture, 
we may safely trust to temporary alliances for ex- 
traordinary emergencies. 

Harmony and a liberal intercourse with all na- 
tions are recommended by policy, humanity and in- 
terest. 

But even our commercial policy should hold an 
equal and impartial hand, neither seeking nor 
granting exclusive favors or preferences ; consulting 
the natural course of things, diffusing and diversify- 
ing by gentle means the streams of commerce, but 
forcing nothing; establishing, with powers so dis- 
posed, in order to give trade a stable course, to de- 
fine the rights of our merchants and to enable the 
government to support them, conventional rules of 
intercourse, the best that present circumstances and 
mutual opinion will permit, but temporary and li- 
able to be from time to time abandoned or varied, as 
experience and circumstances shall dictate; con- 
stantly keeping in view that it is folly in one nation 
to look for disinterested favors from another; that 
it must pay with a portion of its independence for 
whatever it may accept under that character; that 
by such acceptance it may place itself in the condi- 
tion of having given equivalents for nominal favors, 
and yet of being reproached with ingratitude for not 
giving more. There can be no greater error than 



166 Patriotism in Washington's Time. 

to expect, or calculate upon, real favors from nation 
to nation. It is an illusion which experience must 
cure, which a just pride ought to discard. 

In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels 
of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope 
they will make the strong and lasting impression 
I could wish — or prevent our nation from running 
the course which has hitherto marked the destiny of 
nations. But if I may even flatter myself that they 
may be productive of some partial benefit, some oc- 
casional good ; that they may now and then recur to 
moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against 
the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against 
the impostures of pretended patriotism, this hope 
will be a full recompense for the solicitude for your 
welfare by which they have been dictated. 

How far in the discharge of my oflScial duties I 
have been guided by the principles which have been 
delineated the public records and other evidences 
of my conduct must witness to you and to the world. 
To myself the assurance of my own conscience is, 
that I have at least believed myself to be guided 
by them. 

In relation to the still subsisting war in Europe, 
my proclamation of the 22nd of April, 1793, is the 
index to my plan. Sanctioned by your approving 
voice and by that of your representatives in both 
houses of Congress, the spirit of that measure has 
continually governed me, uninfluenced by any at- 
tempts to deter or divert me from it. 

After deliberate examination, with the aid of the 
best lights I could obtain, I was well satisfied that 



Patriotism in WashiMgtON^s Time. 167 

our country, under all the circumstances of the case, 
had a right to take and was bound in duty and in- 
terest to take a neutral position. Having taken it, 
I determined, as far as should depend upon me, to 
maintain it with moderation, perseverance and firm- 
ness. 

The considerations which respect the right to hold 
this conduct it is not necessary on this occasion to 
detail. I will only observe that, according to my 
understanding of the matter, the right, so far from 
being denied by any of the belligerent powers, has 
been virtually admitted by all. 

The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be in- 
ferred, without anything more, from the obligation 
which justice and humanity impose on every nation, 
in cases in which it is free to act, to maintain invio- 
late any relations of peace and amity toward other 
nations. 

The inducements of interest for observing that 
conduct will best be referred to your own reflections 
and experience. With me a predominant motive 
has been to endeavor to gain time to our country, 
to settle and mature its yet recent institutions and 
to progress, without interruption, to that degree of 
strength and consistency which is necessary to give 
it, humanely speaking, the command of its own for- 
tunes. 

Though, in reviewing the incidents of my admin- 
istration, I am unconscious of intentional error, I 
am, nevertheless, too sensible of my own defects not 
to think it probable that I may have committed 
many errors. Whatever they may be, I fervently be- 



l68 Patriotism in Washington's Time;. 

seech the Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to 
which they may tend. I shall also carry with me 
the hope that my country will never cease to view 
them with indulgence, and that after forty-five years 
of my life dedicated to its service with an upright 
zeal, the faults of incompetent ability will be con- 
signed to oblivion, as myself must soon be to the 
mansions of rest. 

Relying on its kindness in this as in other things, 
and actuated by that fervent love toward it which is 
so natural to a man who views in it the native soil 
of himself and his progenitors for several genera- 
tions, I anticipate with pleasing expectation that 
retreat in which I promise myself to realize, without 
alloy, the sweet enjoyment of partaking, in the midst 
of my fellow-citizens, the benign influence of good 
laws under a free government — the ever favorite ob- 
ject of my heart and the happy reward, as I trust, 
of our mutual cares, labors and dangers. 

G. Washington. 
United States, 
17th September, 1796. 



Patriotism in Washington's Time. 169 



CHRONOLOGICAL INDEX. 

17p5 — Parliament passed the Stamp Act March 8 

The Colonial Congress met in New York Oct. 7 

1766 — Parliament repealed the Stamp Act March 8 

1767 — A bill taxing tea, glass, paper, etc., was passed. .. .June 29 

1768 — A body of British troops arrived at Boston Sept. 27 

1773 — Tea in Boston harbor thrown overboard Dec. 16 

1774 — The Boston Port bill passed by Parliament March 31 

The first Continental Congress met in Philadelphia. .Sept. 3 
1775 — The war commenced with the Battle of Lexington. .April 19 

Allen and Arnold capture Ticonderoga May 10 

Washington was elected Commander-in-Chief June 15 

The Battle of Bunker Hill June 17 

Montreal surrendered to Montgomery Nov. 13 

1776 — Boston was evacuated by the British troops March 17 

Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. .July 4 

1777— ^H owe took possession of Philadelphia Sept. 26 

The Battle of Saratoga was fought Oct. 7 

American Army went into winter quarters at Valley 

Forge Dec. 11 

1778 — France acknowledged the independence of the U. S. .Feb. 6 
The British, under Clinton, evacuate Philadelphia. .June 18 
1780 — Arnold plotted to betray West Point to the British. 
Major John Andre, Adjutant-General, British Army, 

executed as a spy at Tappan, New York Oct. 2 

1781 — ^The Articles of Confederation ratified by the States. 

Lord Comwalis surrendered at Yorktown Oct. 19 

1783 — Washington resigned his commission to Congress .... Dec. 23 
1787 — Convention at Philadelphia adopted the Constitution 

of the United States Sept. 17 

1789 — George Washington inaugurated President April 30 

1799 — Washington died at Mount Vernon, Va Dec. 14 

1800 — The City of Washington became the Capital of the 
United States. 

1801 — Thomas Jefferson inaugurated President March 4 

1803 — Louisiana purchased from France April 30 



